Mewni's Champion
by SKYx10
Summary: AU Star vs.: What if you were told from an early age that you would protect someone you didn't even know but would require that you train for years until that point, even beyond that? What if it had to do with something that was decided before you were even born, would you still do it and why? Well... sometimes, life isn't exactly fair but things usually balance out in the end.
1. Born to Protect

**A/N** : **So I've had the ideas for this story in my head for the last few week or so and I just had to write it down. This story will be** _ **long**_ **. I was going to wait till December to post it but I figure that I should give you lovely readers something fresh from me. Anyways, I hope you peeps like this and strap in because this chapter is the longest one I've done!**

 **Disclaimer** **:** _ **I do not claim the right to Star vs. the Forces of Evil or any of the characters in the show. They belong to Disney and the show's creator, Daron Nefcy. I do, however, claim the right to the plot as well as any original characters that may appear in this fic. - Sky**_

* * *

Echo Creek was a peaceful little place where nothing interesting ever happened. Some even called it boring, but things like entertainment were usually subjective.

Angie Diaz thought certainly thought so and she loved the drastic change in scenery from her earlier years.

Less fighting.

She looked out of the kitchen window and saw her six-year-old son running around in the backyard with a couple of friends he made in school a few days ago. Her son, Marco Ubaldo Diaz, was playing tag with two girls: Janna Ordonia and Jackie Lynn Thomas.

He looked so happy, which made her happy.

Angie couldn't help but shake her head at little Janna since she could tell that the small girl was going to be trouble in the future. The way her eyes sparkled when someone told her not to do something gave it away, along with her constant abduction of her son's crayons but she ruled that as a cry to get Marco's attention. As for the other one, well that was a little more complicated since she knew, like a mother always does, that her little baby boy had a crush on little Jackie.

A frown began to form on her face as she remembered what her son would most likely go through in the future, how she had made a promise to an old friend regarding her son. A promise that may bring harm to him as well as difficult life choices, but she knew better than to doubt her son's potential… But she still wanted to prepare him for whatever situation he may face when the time came for him to be called. She had stalled telling her son long enough.

Angie glanced at the clock and saw that it was starting to get late, the setting sun in the distance being another indicator that her son's playtime had to be cut short. She opened the door that lead out to the backyard and stopped when she saw her son's innocent smile as he continued to play tag with the other two. She wished he could stay innocent forever. What mother wouldn't want to shield their child from life's dangers and cruelty?

But she knew she couldn't stop the mystery that is life but did know one thing.

Her son was special and would do great things for others, but not on Earth, so she had to prepare him starting today. She didn't know when they would come for him, so the sooner they start the better. "Marco, honey, it's time to come inside. It's getting late." Angie announced to the children.

The three of them froze in place and looked sad at the news, but knew better than to argue against her. The girls didn't want to eat broccoli as punishment for being difficult, especially Marco.

He hated broccoli.

"Aww man. [Turns to the two girls] Sorry guys, we'll play some more tomorrow?" Marco asked timidly.

"It's okay, Marco. We'll see you tomorrow. We wouldn't want to upset Ms. Diaz anyway, right Janna?" asked Jackie with a raised eyebrow.

"Hmmm, yeah, sure. But Marco's it, or else he won't get his crayons back."

Before Marco could reply Janna bolted out of the backyard gate, quickly followed by Jackie once she rolled her eyes at her friends antics. "See you tomorrow Marco!" yelled Jackie, while waving back, once she reached the sidewalk in front of the Diaz residence.

Marco timidly waved back, not noticing his mother walking up behind him. She reached down and lifted him into her arms causing a squeak to escape his small frame, her barrage of kisses causing him to giggle shortly after. "[Smiles] Come on sweety, there's something I have to talk to you about. It's very important."

Marco looked up into his mother's warm emerald eyes and noticed that something was wrong. He could tell when his mother was hiding something from him, since she wasn't very good at hiding it in the first place. The strained smile she was showing made him feel slightly uneasy.

"M-Mom, is everything okay? You're not hurt are you?" he asked innocently.

Angie didn't answer.

Once the two were inside, she sat on the couch with her son on her lap. Angie took a deep breath, trying to gain back her composure so she could tell her son about his probable future, even if just a little.

" _Hijo_ , Mama has to start getting you ready for things you might face in the future. So your playtime with your friends is going to be cut-in-half from now on because of it."

"But w-why?... Did I do something w-wrong?" asked a teary-eyed Marco.

"Oh no no no, sweety, you didn't do anything wrong… If anything, it's all my fault." Angie said with a sad smile.

"What do you mean, mama?"

Angie lifted Marco off her lap and sat him on the couch. She walked over to a drawer that he noticed was always locked, but never questioned what was inside after his mama told him it was "grown-up stuff." Marco saw his mom pull out a small golden key from her pants pocket, barely managing to make out a tiny symbol that looked like the sun on it.

After getting what was inside the drawer, Angie walked back to the couch while hiding what she took out behind her back. She sat down and didn't say anything for a few minutes, trying to think on what to say and what to save to tell him later once he was older. Marco's eyes widened once he saw his mama pull out an ornate but sharp object the size of his arm from behind her back. There was a small symbol of what appeared to be an hourglass on the hilt.

"This, Marco, was a dagger I used when I was a teenager [smiles sadly] back during my crazy teenage days before I had you [pinches his cheek lovingly]... Sweety, when you're older, you will go on an adventure as I did to a faraway land where you will protect a family member that belongs to one of mama's friend. You will see beautiful things and meet amazing people… as well as see some… bad things. [Smiles with determination] But don't worry, mommy's going to prepare you for that, okay?"

Marco was so confused.

Was someone going to take him away from his mama and why? Was it dangerous?... Who would take him and what adventure was she talking about?

Who would he be protecting?

"W-what kind of ad-adventure?" he asked nervously.

"Hmmm, do you remember that fantasy movie we saw with magic and big castles?"

"L-Lord of the Rings?"

"Well, it's _kind of_ like that except that you will mostly be in the castle and talk to mama's friend about things she tells you to do so you won't be fighting evil monsters… I hope anyway," she whispered the last part to herself.

"... Okay?... But, if I'm just going to stay in a castle, what do you need to prepare me for?" he asked slightly less nervously since he did _love_ fantasy related things.

Angie smiled sadly at her son and slowly petted his head, "You probably don't need it but your mama just wants to make sure you're safe and p-prepared to handle a-anything that comes to your way… I'm sorry..."

Angie suddenly broke down into tears and tried to hide behind her hands. She felt terrible for putting her son in such a position but couldn't go back on her promise since they would just take him by force because of the magical bonded-legal agreement. She wouldn't be able to outrun _them_ either. Her crazy friend may be on her side but not the others, especially the one with horns.

Angie felt small hands touch hers and slowly pull them away from her face. She opened her eyes and saw her son's blazing determination in his chocolate brown eyes. The same determination she had seen on her husband before she left…

"Don't worry, mama, I'll prepare for the adventure so please don't cry. I'll try extra hard and I'll even eat my broccoli so don't-"

Marco's words were cut off by his mama's embrace. Her strawberry-like scent instantly calmed his nerves and allowed him to sink into her warm and welcoming arms. His mama's hugs were the best.

"I'm so lucky to have you, Marco." They slowly pull away from each other, as Angie wipes a couple of tears from her eyes, giving her son a big smile. "You make me so proud and will surpass your mama in no time, I'm sure of it! In fact…" Angie reached around her neck and unhooked something, gesturing for Marco to hold out his hands. She slowly placed a silver pendant, with the same hourglass symbol he had seen on the dagger, in his hands. "It's your destiny to do great things, Marco. I just know it."

The smile she gave her son spoke volumes on how much she believed those words to be true. So much so that Marco believed her, and couldn't wait to continue making his mama proud. He was going to be a little sad that he wouldn't be able to play with Jackie and Janna but this seemed more important.

His mama had tried to hide her concern regarding this 'adventure' but he could feel that whatever he was going to be thrown into in the future would require him to be the best he could be, especially if his growth affected his ability to protect someone.

He hooked the pendant around his neck and looked up at his mama, giving her the biggest smile he could muster.

' _Don't worry, mama, I'll be a good boy and listen to you. I'll make you proud.'_

* * *

 _ *** 10 Years Later ***_

Echo Creek High was your average high school, but with less graffiti in the bathroom stalls. The majority of students were uninteresting, lacked colorful personalities, and the classes were as engaging as a wet-half eaten piece of toast.

Marco was currently sitting in his math class as his teacher, Ms. Skullnick, tried to explain to the class about 'imaginary numbers'. He glanced around the class to see if he was the only one paying attention and chuckled internally when he saw his classmates bored out of their minds. One student was sprawled out on a chair as if his soul had been sucked out of him. A fly landed on his eye and didn't even blink at the nasty-uncomfortable situation he was in.

He looked dead.

As Marco's eyes and attention continued to wander from the interesting realm that is math, and probably a dead student, he caught sight of his two best friends since elementary: Janna and Jackie.

Janna had changed drastically throughout the years, going through every phase imaginable that a teenager could think of, but mellowed out about a year ago, much to her parent's relief. Her attire consisted of a dark sky blue jacket with a green tank-top underneath, a black skirt with lace at the bottom, and a pair of brown boots. Her black hair had grown past her shoulders, now reaching to the middle of her back. The reason she would grow her hair out was to cut it pixie-style and donate the rest to help anyone who needed it.

She occasionally wore her green beanie nowadays, opting to have her hair out in the open which Marco had to say was a good look for her.

The one thing that hasn't changed about Janna was her personality. She was still a troublemaker and spent half her time in the school's detention with Ms. Skullnick but, due to something that happened back at the start of sophomore year, she spent less time there and more with her friends, mostly Marco.

Marco and Janna had grown closer throughout the years, which was surprising to everyone because of their opposite natures, but their relationship worked, mostly due to Marco bailing her out from trouble. However, he enjoyed and appreciated her company and would be lying if he said that some of her personality hadn't rubbed off on him, much to his mother's slight disapproval.

Marco noticed that Janna was scribbling something on a piece of paper, which he was one hundred percent positive wasn't school related. Her eyebrows were knitted together as if she were concentrating extremely hard on whatever it was that she was working on. She suddenly rose her gaze and met Marco's, chocolate browns meeting caramel.

She lifted the paper for him to see and was impressed at what he saw.

It was a semi-rough sketch of the entire class, even the seemingly dead guy at the back, but what caught his eye was the drawing of him. Janna had depicted him looking towards her direction, which was odd since he had just started doing so less than a minute ago. He had to admit her artistic skill was freakishly good.

Marco gave her his two thumbs-up of approval, causing her to smile and return back to her drawing.

He shifted his attention to Jackie, who was sitting two seats down from Janna's right and saw her resting her head on her hand, bored out of her existence.

Jackie had stayed the same casual-free individual that she was throughout the years, taking up skateboarding since she liked "the way the wind felt in her hair" as well as surfing. However, that all changed when she was hit by a car next to the skate-park by the beach. The bastard tried to flee the scene but was stopped by her fellow skateboarders. Marco clenched his fists in anger at the memory but unclenched them immediately.

It wasn't worth wasting his energy getting angry over the past.

Jackie was hospitalized for a couple months and came out of it with only a fractured rib and leg. The doctors had told her and her family that she was lucky to be alive since the rib could have punctured her lung, causing internal bleeding, and could have drowned in her own blood before she reached the hospital. The near-death experience had rapidly changed her outlook in life and decided to show who she really was underneath the cool-laid back facade: a girl with many emotions who was afraid of situations she couldn't control and could easily get angry like everybody else, Marco is one of the unlucky few to experience it first hand.

After getting out of the hospital, Jackie changed her usual wavy hairstyle for a pixie cut, keeping the blue streak in her blonde hair, and decided to go about life the way she truly wanted. She added even more sport related activities on top of her skateboarding and surfing like soccer, tennis, golf, football, volleyball, you name it.

Jackie did it all because she wanted to experience it all.

She was, as Janna called her, an "adrenaline junkie."

She even took up kickboxing for fun, but mostly for self-defense after some creeps on the street tried to hit on her and get a little handsy. However, Marco was there to set everything straight after coming out of a store across the street from them. Those three poor souls (bastards) had to get hospitalized after being beaten half to death.

Anyways, Jackie loved kickboxing since it was one hell of a workout and truly enjoyed it. After a few years of hard work and training, she was a force to be reckoned with. However, she left the gym after her instructor tried to put the moves on her. Long story short, he won't be having kids _ever_.

Due to those circumstances, she would spar with Marco at the school's gym every now and then to keep up her form. It wasn't awkward or anything since he had stopped having a crush on her after the incident, realizing that he preferred to be more like a protective older brother to her rather than something more and didn't regret his decision.

One of the downsides of her current life was that her schedule was usually _always_ booked which ate at her time with friends during the day, so they opted to hang out at night for a few hours at the Diaz residence.

Ms. Diaz made the best cookies and Marco had a huge plasma TV, so the choice was obvious.

As if noticing she was being looked at, Jackie turned around towards and saw Marco looking at her. She stuck her tongue out at him in a playful manner which he quickly returned, causing Jackie to snort at how silly his face looked.

" _Mr. Diaz_ , would it kill you to pay attention in class?" said Ms. Skullnick in a booming voice, causing the entire class to snap out of their daze except for the guy at the back.

"The better question, Ms. Skullnick, is if that guy back there isn't dead because I don't think he has moved in the last twenty minutes," he said with fake concern, earning a few chuckles from the students.

"Very funny, Mr. Diaz, but since you _clearly_ know everything about imaginary numbers, how about you do this example on the board?" the math teacher said with a smirk.

"Oooh, I would _love_ to enlighten the class with my intelligence, Ms. Skullnick, but we don't have time for my _genius_."

"I don't care-"

 _RIIIINNNGGG!_

The entire class erupted in cheers at hearing the deafening-angelic ringing of the bell that allowed them to leave the horribly empty pocket devoid of joy that was Ms. Skullnick's math class.

The guy who was presumed to be dead was miraculously revived by the bell and, with god-like vigor, ran out of the classroom screaming "FREEDOM!" at the top of his lungs down the hall. The other students followed suit, leaving Marco and a very annoyed Ms. Skullnick behind.

He walked up to her desk and handed her a folded piece of paper.

She slowly opened it and scoffed at what she saw.

"Well, Mr. Diaz, it seems you completed the chapter problems, even the ones I didn't cover with ease, _again_." Ms. Skullnick said slightly impressed, after seeing him do this all year round. "You're definitely getting into a good college the way you're going."

"Thank for the positive reinforcement but, enough about me, [leans forward] how are things with Principal Skeeves?" he whispered, a cheeky smile plastered on his face.

Her eyes lighted up as a faint blush spread across her face, telling him all he needed to know.

"It's been going great! Those dinner suggestions you gave me worked. He loved the nachos side dish!" she said happily.

"I'm happy for you, Ms. S. [Starts to head towards the door] Have a good summer break and tell Skeeves 'Hi' for me." He stopped halfway through the door and glanced over his shoulder. "Oh, and maybe don't do a math lesson on the last day of school? Finals were last week."

Ms. Skullnick chuckled at his suggestion, thinking of giving it some consideration.

"Have a good break, Mr. Diaz," she said with a smile.

Marco simply nodded and headed down the empty hall, now devoid of students. He couldn't blame them. The start of the three-month-long summer break was tomorrow and he would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to it.

Jackie had promised to teach him how to surf, after constant begging, and Janna had bought the entire collection of _Godzilla_ movies, along with other great classics, so he was looking forward spending Movie-Night Thursdays with his two friends over the break.

He also had training, which he had come to love over the years.

His fit physique was a testament to that.

Marco knew that his mama's friend could come for him without a moments notice but, after some thought, decided to enjoy his time and life, except for a few things, like a relationship since it wouldn't be right to up and leave someone to help a stranger...

Wait, wasn't he training to do just that?

After clearing his locker out of books and other things, he headed towards the school's exit. He was going to miss school, but everyone needs a break now and then from the repetitiveness of it. The one thing he _absolutely_ wouldn't miss was the school lunches.

He swears to everything holy that the food was meant to kill the students by how bad it was.

As soon as he pushed past the doors, he felt something slam onto his back and slender arms wrap around his neck, slightly staggering him, but continued to walk away from the school.

"[Chuckles] Am I getting _mugged_?" Marco said sarcastically.

"You wish, _Safe Kid_. [Flicks him on the head] So what took you so long? Was the troll giving you a hard time?"

Marco brushed off her comment and crossed the street with Janna riding on his back, looking both ways, to head down the sidewalk that leads to his house. He didn't mind Janna being handsy with him, like some girls who had tried to be, oddly enough since he didn't like the attention.

He looked ahead and spotted Jackie a block away, sitting on a bench, working on her skateboard.

"Basically, she just told me that a have a good chance of getting into a good college. Then I cleared my locker, but the funny thing is that I didn't find my keys. You wouldn't happen to _know_ anything about that, would you?"

He felt Janna tense, causing him to smirk.

"U-Uhh, no. Forget about your dumb keys and college for a second. _You_ should be focusing on your match tonight, which I will be attending of course. I enjoy watching you beat people up too much." she said with a sly grin.

"[Scoffs] You're one of a kind Janna, one of a kind... As for my match, I think I got it under control. Besides, I'm not doing this for the trophy, I'm doing it for the practice. It's not often I can fight a fellow black belt, you know."

Jackie spotted them from where she was sitting and waved at them, which Janna returned for both of them since Marco had his hands preoccupied with holding her legs in place. She stood up and began to walk with her two best friends.

"[Rolls her eyes] Marco, don't you get tired of carrying Janna around like a backpack?" Jackie said jokingly.

"Hey! Don't try to sabotage my free ride!" Janna fumed but quickly winked at Jackie causing the blond to shake her head.

"Girl, you've been hitching a ride on Marco since _middle school_. Don't you think his back hurts from carrying your large behind around?"

"[Blushes] H-He's not complaining… Besides, I don't weigh that much, right Marco?" she asked with a nervous smile.

"Hmmm, well, no, not really. [Looks at Jackie and smirks] She's much better than my actual backpack since she can talk and tell jokes. I don't think a fifty-dollar backpack does that."

"Maybe you should return it before the warranty expires," Jackie whispered loudly with a cheeky smile.

"Hey! I can hear you!"

Marco fake-winced, "You're right, Jackie. I think this one's _faulty_." he said with a chuckle.

Jackie couldn't hold back the laughter that had bubbled inside of her and couldn't stop herself after the laughing fit began. Marco soon joined after her, which earned a glare from Janna.

"I hate you guys," she said annoyingly, but then joined in with her friends.

The three laughed for a couple more minutes, stopping at a light to cross to the other side of the street. Janna, out of nowhere, began to tickle Marco's neck which caused him to freak out and tried to get her off. Jackie saw her two friend's silliness and busted out laughing until a few tears formed on her eyes. Janna looked like she was riding a bull by how erratic Marco was trying to get her off his back.

She had to admit that Janna would have made a great bull rider.

"JANNA! S-STOP!" Marco cried out as he continued to try to shake her off.

"Make me, Diaz!" she said with absolute joy.

Marco suddenly felt the weight on his back disappear, confusing him for a slight second until he turned around and smiled at who he saw.

It was his mother, Angie Diaz, placing Janna on the ground next to her as if she weighed nothing.

"Now, Janna, what have I told you about riding my son in public?"

Jackie snorted at the sexual innuendo, while Marco groaned. Janna's face was glowing tomato red, which was out of character of her. Angie enjoyed embarrassing her son's troublemaker friend, a little too much, especially when she was giving her son a hard time. "Come on, what did I say?" she asked again, a smile trying to break through her serious facade.

"... To only do it… with his approval." Janna whispered, wishing she could disappear from the embarrassing situation. Her cheeks were flaring and wanted nothing more than to _run_ far away from where she stood. She'll get even with Marco later for having his mom embarrass her… It was justified, shut up.

"Hey, Ms. Diaz, how have you been?" Jackie asked, trying to spare her friend from any more embarrassment.

"[Smiles] I'm doing fine, Jackie, thank you for asking. Now [turns to her son] what have I told _you_ about letting girls ride you?" she said with a frown, which he knew was fake.

"[Rolls his eyes] I don't have time for this, mom. I'll see you guys at the match and don't yell this time, please," he said to Janna and Jackie with a smile. The two girls nodded, embarrassment evident on their faces, and began to head down the street where their houses were, which weren't that far from his.

"See ya, Marco," Jackie said coolly and turned back to face the direction she was walking in.

"I'll be expecting a party after your win tonight, Marco! Pizza would be nice!" yelled Janna, who had run down ahead of Jackie to the other side of the block for some odd reason. Marco just waved back at his two friend's retreating forms in the distance.

Marco felt a tap on his shoulders and turned around. His mom was looking at him with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. He sighed, knowing where she wanted to take the conversation. He bowed and gestured towards the direction of their house, "My lady." he said in a mock regal tone.

Angie rolled her eyes at her son and headed down the sidewalk, enjoying the evening breeze, which was rare during this time of year. Marco caught up to her and both of them walked in silence for a few minutes.

"So… Janna _likes_ you." Angie said in a teasing tone.

"I _knew_ you were going to bring it up. [Sighs] Mama, could we not get into this again? Plea-"

"Do you like her back?"

Marco shook his head at how pushy his mama could be but knew that when she wanted to know something, she would get to the bottom of it no matter how many times he brushed off her questions.

"What does it matter? I can't have a relationship because I may need to 'abruptly' leave to Mewni, remember?" he said somewhat melancholic.

Angie frowned at hearing her son's tone. She wanted nothing more than for her son to be happy and to enjoy his youth. Sure, she didn't exactly like the Ordonia child but she had grown on her. Her and Janna's mother were good friends after all, and the same could be said about Jackie's. Who wouldn't be friends after seeing their kids get in trouble as a group constantly throughout the years? She was glad to have taught her son how to talk his way out of situations, which the girls' parents were also grateful for.

Regarding her son's love life, if he wanted to date Janna then she would support him all the way. She didn't have parents growing up so she vowed at an early age to always be there for her own children and support them as much as possible.

It was just heartbreaking to hear her son talk as if he couldn't do something he wanted to in his life, as if the trip to Mewni would cut all ties to his life on Earth…

"That doesn't really answer my question, Marco," Angie said sternly. She could tell the topic was getting on her son's nerves, but she didn't care. It was her job as a parent to make her son open up to her.

"Mama… please. I don't want to talk about it."

"Just answer the question and I'll stop bothering you."

"..."

"Do you like Jan-"

"I DON'T KNOW!… I don't.. know."

Angie was surprised at hearing her son yell at her. He had _never_ yelled at her, and she had accidentally dyed all his hoodies yellow in the wash once, but now saw a glimpse of how conflicted her son truly was under his carefree attitude.

She wanted to hug him, but couldn't due to a growth spurt he hit last year making him tower over her five-foot-one frame with his six-foot-two, so she patted his back instead. Her arms wouldn't reach around him anyway, she's tried...

"Honey, your trip to Mewni isn't going to last forever. It's temporary so you'll be back."

"[Sighs] We've been over this, mama. I don't think it's fair or right to just up and leave on someone you care about without telling them the reason why..."

The rest of the way home was held in silence.

Angie's guilt was eating away at her, as it slowly had for all these years, for not telling him the _entire_ truth and was kicking herself for keeping it from him for so long, but no more!

She would tell him after they got home from his karate match and hopefully, it would be enough for him to tell Janna about the situation.

* * *

 _ ***Mewni***_

It was dark.

Small rays of moonlight had managed to enter what appeared to be someone's room but, thanks to the small amount that did, several things could be visible inside.

The walls were grey and dull. A large mirror was laying against the wall, facing the opposite way, as if never intended to be used. The edge of a bed, with light purple sheets, was barely visible. Sadly, the balcony and the moonlight that was coming from it wasn't near enough to get a good view of the entire bed. The bleached curtains that 'decorated' the room were closed, stopping any sort of light from the outside world to come in uninvited. But the most noticeable thing about the room was the _air_.

It was cold and stale, devoid of any joy or color.

It was depressing.

* _Knock Knock Knock_ *

No response.

* _Knock Knock Knock_ *

"Star, open the door, our mother is waiting in the throne room for us… You're the only one who isn't ready… Please, open up." said a slightly British-regal accent pleadingly.

After a minute went by without a response, the room's door was broken off its hinges and a girl wearing a purple Victorian-era dress walked in, laying the broken door against the wall.

"I'll fix it later. Star come on-"

Her words caught in her throat when she saw her sister, thanks to the illumination from the hall, sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. She was facing towards the balcony, a light breeze gently blowing some of her golden locks from her face, revealing broken heart-shaped marks on her pale cheeks.

The girl walked closer to her sister, forced to clear her throat after inhaling the cold air.

It felt like drinking a glass of ice-cold water.

The girl made her way over to her sister, stopping right behind her as she gently placed a hand on her. She could feel her bony shoulder through her nightgown.

"Star, come on... I'll help you get ready... I'll even brush your hair with my comb, you know, the one you like and make you pretty like-!" she said cheerfully.

Her attempt at cheering Star up did not work. Star nodded and stood up slowly from the chair, using her sister's arm for support. Once on her feet, they came face to face. Star opened her mouth to say something but struggled on the words, as if the words themselves burned her.

"Do… you.. th-think… this time… will… be different?.." Star managed to stutter out weakly.

The girl gave her a sad smile and nodded, tears welling up in her eyes at seeing the state of her little sister, but she fought them back. "Yes, this time will be different, I promise… Come on. Mother can only stall the ceremony for so long."

The two girls slowly walked out of the room and into the light, leaving the hopeless and stagnant atmosphere in the room behind.

* * *

Marco was standing on the ring's mat and should be excited to fight an unknown challenger, to him, that was on his level in karate.

But he couldn't bring himself to enjoy this, which was odd since he _loved_ karate. A look inside his room would make even a museum dedicated to the ancient art jealous.

Marco shook his head, trying to force himself to regain focus, which kind of work. He looked at his opponent and saw that he was well built, almost a little _too_ much, and meant business. The scowl on his face wasn't giving off an 'I love hugs!' vibe, which was further established by the glare he was shooting at Marco.

' _I think he may not like me._ ' he thought sarcastically.

Marco looked into the stands and had no problem noticing his mama and friends. The dojo's lighting was bright as all hell, which irritated his eyes. His mama appeared to be deep in thought by how blank her face looked. A look he would catch her doing in the middle of the night when she was holding her dagger, staring off into the darkness of the night.

As for Janna and Jackie, they were talking about something that must have been funny since Jackie began to choke on her strawberry drink while Janna laughed and patted her on the back to help with the coughing. What seemed a little odd was that Jackie's face was a little red. He guessed it was because she had choked on the drink and was embarrassed.

Apart from them, the stands seemed to be sprinkled with people he recognized from school and neighborhood, except for one strange individual. The individual was completely covered from head to toe in a dark brown robe, but the strangest thing was that the stranger seemed to be _floating_ from their seat.

The necklace his mama had given him all those years ago felt warm on his neck for some reason, never having done that before.

Marco was snapped back to his match when he noticed a referee approach the middle of the ring, gesturing for the fighters to come to him. He quickly explained the rules and stepped back.

The muscular guy stepped up to Marco, which wasn't difficult since they were the same height, getting up in his face with a smirk. "I'm going to show you _real_ karate, Marco, and expose you for the farce that you are," he said in a thick Russian accent laced with venom. Marco simply nodded and shrugged. "Sure. What's your name, again?"

The Russian frowned as if he had been offended, "The name's Vladimir." he spat.

"[Cracks neck] Well, Vladimir, let's have a good match," Marco said nonchalantly.

Marco stuck out his hand to shake Vlads but the Russian frowned and spat on the ground beside him.

Wow, rude much?

The referee saw that things were getting a little heated so he stepped in, separating them a little, and told them to prepare for the fight.

Vladimir did the whole theatrical pre-karate movements like in the movies before he got into his stance that Marco instantly recognized to be from lower levels of training, one foot forward while the body was angled sideways.

He had to admit that it was one of the easier stances to use to counter attacks and would have gotten into his own stance if he _needed_ _to_. But he didn't so he just stood normally, feet slightly spread apart with his arms at his side.

The crowd wasn't surprised because they had seen Marco do more or less the exact thing he was doing now, even if it did look a little odd from a competitive perspective, in his previous matches.

Angie, no longer lost in her own thoughts, frowned at her son. She could tell he wasn't taking the fight seriously, something she had preached a million times to never do.

Janna had her eyes glued on Marco while she ate gummy worms, that definitely weren't Jackie's, and didn't want to blink, not wanting to risk missing a _single thing_ he may do if she did.

She loved watching him.

Jackie, like Angie, was a little peeved on Marco's behavior. He always did that when it came to fighting and she had confronted him many times about it when the two sparred in the gym, feeling as if he wasn't taking her seriously at times, like if it were a _game_ to him or something.

His response would always be "sorry" or "I was just messing around so relax" but her personal _favorite_ was when he shrugged and said, "I'll try to be serious."

 _ **Try to be serious?**_

She cared about Marco a lot, maybe not as much as Janna since she could get a little _freaky_ when it came to certain Marco related topics, but sometimes she wanted to smack him across the face for being so rude.

Acting as if no one was a _true_ challenge for him.

However, Jackie knew she would feel bad afterward since he was doing it unintentionally, or at least that's what she told herself. One of the reasons she still practiced kickboxing was to one-up Marco and put him in his place, but it was obvious that she had a _long_ way to go before that.

He had been a black belt since he was eleven, after all.

As for Vladimir, he was seething at seeing how lax Marco was being towards him. Had he not heard of his numerous trophies and accomplishments in karate? Was he being mocked, along with all the painstaking hours of his life that he had put into the art?

"Is this a _**joke**_ to you, Marco?" he said through gritted teeth, "Am I not _worthy_ of your time?!"

Marco simply looked at him with indifference and began to slowly walk towards him. In a flash of rage, Vladimir rushed Marco and launched a flying kick to his chest with all the force he could muster behind it, but met nothing but air as Marco sidestepped the attack with little effort. He brought his foot down and swung his fist at Marco's face but, once again, missed.

"Wow, if the air was your opponent, you would have won already," Marco said from behind Vladimir.

To everyone's surprise, even Marco's, Vladimir managed to spin around and land a solid punch to his face in a blink of an eye. The sickening echo of the punch bounced off the walls, causing everyone to gasp in the audience after seeing Marco get hit by such a solid blow for the first time ever, his head snapping back from the force.

The heavy silenced that followed was palpable.

"[Scoffs] How's that? Am I _worthy_ of your time now, your _highness_?" Vladimir said with tremendous confidence as a smirk graced his rough face.

"Marco, come on! This guy has nothing on you!" yelled Janna, whose words of encouragement seemed to reel everyone back from their shock.

Vladimir smirked at Janna's words but, before he could do anything else, was stopped by the referee and awarded a point. He was the first to have earned a point against Marco and his confidence only seemed to inflate at seeing how unresponsive Marco was after the hit.

After the two went to their designated spots, the referee signaled for the match to resume but, instead of rushing Marco like last time, Vladimir walked casually towards him. "[Chuckling] Guess I hit you harder than I thought but don't worry, [gestures towards Janna] I'll show your girl how pathetic you truly are and after the match I could show her a good time, with a _real_ man," he said while flexing his muscles.

Janna and Jackie cringe with disgust, while Ms. Diaz began to get worried about how her son was acting.

"You **disgusting** _fuck_! You will never even come **close** to being half the man Marco-" Janna yelled but was silenced by Vlad's creepy smile.

"Mind your mouth. [Smiles creepily] I'll put it to good use after the match," he said in a lechery tone, which caused Janna and all the girls in the stands to feel sick to their stomachs.

Vladimir, satisfied with their reaction, turned back towards Marco but froze when he saw Marco standing mere inches from him, eyes full of rage while his expression remained devoid of any emotions.

Once he snapped out of his stupor, he threw a punch at Marco's face again with all his rage behind it, but Marco crouched slightly to avoid it and shot his palm up. He made contact with Vladimir's chin, sending him off the floor a couple inches, and landed with a heavy thud on his back.

Marco crouched down to the ground next to Vladimir's prone form and narrowly managed to dodge a spin kick by hopping off the ground. The Russian stood up slowly and shook his head to get his bearings. The referee made his way over to him and checked if he was okay, which he determined to be the case since he didn't end the match, but did award Marco with a point so it was now tied.

"YEAH! WAY TO GO MARCO!" cheered Janna from the stands, followed by Jackie and a few others who were now cheering for him since they had found a common enemy to get behind after witnessing Vladimir's crude actions.

So much for not yelling...

"Lucky [spits blood] shot," Vlad said with a scowl.

"I'm only going to say this once: quit," Marco said with evident anger in his voice and steely eyes. He looked different, more serious, which Angie and Jackie were surprised to see. Sure, they had seen Marco get angry while fighting before but never did he get _serious_ about it.

' _It must have been because he insulted Janna_.' Jackie thought with a smirk as she looked at her troublemaker friend, who was oblivious to the change in Marco because she was too busy blushing at how protective Marco had sounded seconds ago, mumbling something too low to hear.

The referee signaled for the match to resume and, to everyone's surprise, Marco rushed Vladimir.

Not expecting Marco to make the first move, he was not prepared to block all of Marco's fluid and swift jabs aimed at his chest that hit like a truck!

Marco stopped his jabs and did a low spinning sweep, taking out Vlad's legs from under him and sending him crashing to the ground. As soon as Vladimir landed, Marco grabbed the back of his collar and lifted him off the ground, kneeing him in the stomach as hard as he could.

His body contorted inwards from the excruciating pain but his face was soon introduced to Marco's other knee, breaking his nose on impact and sending him onto the ground once again.

Marco was about to lift him up again but was stopped by the referee who raised his hand as the proclaimed winner since Vladimir was out cold and, most likely, had a shattered nose if the bloody mess that was his face was any indication.

Marco took a deep breath and exhaled, repeating the actions a couple times, until he calmed back down. He jumped down from the mat and quickly glanced at the stands as he made his way to the locker room, noticing the stunned expression on the audience's faces.

The stranger was gone too.

A few paramedics who were on standby were attending to Vladimir as the sounds of sirens could be heard off in the distance and grew louder as the seconds rolled by.

* * *

Marco pushed past the side exit doors of the dojo and stepped out into the empty parking lot.

"WOW, Marco, that was awesome! That _douche_ totally deserved- Hey where are you going?" asked Janna, as he showed no sign of stopping to answer her and continued to speed walk home.

Janna's face changed from one of excitement to concern and took off after him, leaving Angie and Jackie behind.

"So… what was that about?" asked Jackie somewhat dumbfounded.

Angie gestured for Jackie to follow her, both making their way towards the Diaz residence. After a few minutes of silence, Angie sighed loudly. " _That_ was an accident-"

"What do you mean by that? Because it looked like he was ready to kill that guy, Ms. D!" exclaimed Jackie.

"That's… He's that way sometimes because of... how I trained him." Angie replied, the shame and guilt oozing out of her tone and expression.

"Training?!... What kind of training are you referring to Ms. D, because I've been to a couple of your training sessions and it's just intense body workouts and endurance stuff."

"Well… yeah, you're right, but that's not all I've taught him. [Sighs] I'll explain when we get home… You girls also deserve to know, I _owe_ you two that much." Angie said sadly.

Jackie simply nodded, too numb to fully understand what was going on in one of her best friend's life.

* * *

Angie and Jackie reached the Diaz residence and found the door unlocked, which meant that Janna was the one who opened the door since Marco usually entered through the backyard door that was connected to the kitchen when he was upset.

Janna didn't even have to pick the lock like she used to, because she usually had his keys.

The two ladies stepped inside and found Janna sitting on the couch with Marco's head on her lap as he laid on the couch. She was stroking his hair, while she laid back against the couch with her eyes closed and didn't bother to open them when they walked inside.

"Uhh, Janna? What's going on?" asked Jackie a little worried and confused at what she was seeing.

"Hmm? [Opens eyes] Oh, hey guys. Marco and I... had a heated make-out session and decided to rest a little before we resumed." Janna said with a smirk, which was met with a snort from Marco as he sat up groggily.

"Janna dragged me out of my room and would not leave me alone so I decided to rest here. [Yawns] So what's up?" Marco said concerned, which was a huge relief to both Jackie and Angie since he seemed to be back to his caring self.

They didn't even bother to comment on what Janna had said because they hadn't believed her, Marco wasn't the type of guy to do that out of the blue.

His mama would kick his ass if he did, or at least try to.

After closing the front door, Angie walked up to the couch and sat next to her son, figuring that the best course of action was to just get it over with before it was too late. Marco turned to face her, while Janna went to go and sit on the love seat sofa with Jackie after she noticed that the conversation between mother and son was going to be serious.

"Marco… honey… it's time I told you the whole truth about the situation with Mewni." Angie waited to see a negative reaction from her son for keeping secrets from him but was surprised when he only nodded. "Y-You're not mad that I kept secret from you?"

Marco rolled his eyes but smiled at her, "Come on, mama, everyone has secrets and I'm sure you didn't tell me certain things for a reason."

Angie hoped that her son's view of her wouldn't change after she finished telling him the details of what he would be doing.

"Sweety, basically, you're going to be what I used to be when I was in Mewni." Angie's face relaxed, as if reminiscing her youth, "I was summoned to Mewni when I was fourteen to be what they called 'Mewni's Champion.' [Chuckles] You should have seen how confused I was… Anyway, for a couple of years, I served the princess of the kingdom as her personal… bodyguard. Before I came back to Earth, I made a deal with the princess, now a Queen, and in that deal, I offered to help her family line through you, Marco." She flashed a sad smile to her son, "Your help was set to last for three months. No more, no less, _unless_ I and she agreed to add to the length when the deadline arrived… That's as much as I've told you over the years, but there's more."

Marco placed his hand over his mama's, giving her the green light to continue but, before she could do so, Janna interrupted them.

"Wait wait wait, why does this sound like something dangerous, and not the good kind?"

"And what does this have to do with how you've been raising Marco?" Jackie chipped in after her which earned a confused look from Janna.

Angie sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose to help relieve some of the stress. She looked at Janna and Jackie, then back at her son. "Well, that's because it _is_ bad. Mewni is basically how Medieval Times was here but with magic and all the fantasy things portrayed by movies. That _entire dimension_ is not lacking ways of killing someone, which is why I raised Marco to be a warrior… It was to make sure he was prepared for anything he may face if he _chose_ to go but I think I may have gone overboard… [Looks into her son's eyes] I'm sorry… "

"It's fine, mama. I don't regret any of it."

Janna was about to say something when Jackie covered her mouth, "What do you mean by that Ms. Diaz?"

Angie's words caught in her throat when she saw her son shake his head at what she was about to say. Marco turned to the two girls and sighed. "Jackie… Janna… I've done some… _questionable_ things in my life, some that I'm not proud of... But I promise to tell you two about them when I'm ready, but for now just trust me, okay?"

Jackie analyzed Marco's words and expression closely and saw that he was being serious about this. He was serious about going to some strange land, but as to the reason _why_ he was so willing to go was still absent. She knew that Marco wouldn't up and leave his life behind, even if temporary, without a good reason. "So what's the reason why you're so adamant about going, Marco?" she asked, which must have been what Janna wanted to ask too since she stopped wriggling in Jackie's grasp and stared at Marco.

Marco sighed and scratched the back of his head, trying to find an answer. "Hmm, it's… complicated. You see, the deal that my mama and the Queen made is a magically bonded one so the penalty for violating it is, basically, death. The reason doesn't matter to me though because I'm not going to put my mama through that drama so I'm _going_ , [glances at Angie] end of story."

The girls were shocked, along with a multiple of other emotions, at what they had just heard. Any sane person would have questioned Marco, but one look at his face and Angie's established what he said as being the truth.

Angie was astonished as to how her son knew all of that since she had never told him that information before. She was about to ask him how he knew when she remembered that her hidden binder behind her mirror, filled with memories of her time in Mewni, was bookmarked to a page she hadn't left it in but thought nothing of it at the time.

That was around when Marco was thirteen and the bookmarked page held a copy of the agreement, along with her and the Queen's signature.

"[Sighs] So… is there more?" asked Marco.

Angie was snapped out of her thoughts and slowly nodded. "Y-Yes. The reason I left Mewni and came back to Earth was... that I was pregnant with you… [Smiles sadly] Your father and I both agreed that Mewni wasn't a safe place to raise you, for several reasons, so... he stayed behind while I raised you here." A couple of tears were rolling down Angie's face and couldn't stop them. The memory of her husband was still painful for her. She felt her son's arms wrap around and pull her into an embrace, where she buried her face into his chest to hide the crushing sorrow in her heart.

"It's okay, mama, everything's going to be okay." He said soothingly, trying to comfort her by stroking her head. "I'll be fine too so don't worry. You didn't train me all these years for nothing."

Angie separated from her son, wiping a few tears, and nodded.

"You're right, _hijo_. [Clears throat] Sorry about that... Where was I?..."

"Sorry for interrupting family time but I'm pressed for time."

All four of them turned toward the direction of the voice and saw a robed stranger by the door, a stranger Marco remembered seeing back at the dojo who wasn't there when the match was over. Marco felt unnerved, his necklace warming up, at the fact that he hadn't heard or sensed the uninvited individual. He was about to stand up and confront the stranger in his home but was held back by his mama, confusing him, but didn't say anything after seeing the look on her face.

"B-Baby?... Is th-that you?" Angie asked, a smile slowly forming on her face.

The stranger started to chuckle and nodded, dropping the robe on the ground.

"What the **hell** am I looking at?" asked a confused Janna, and no one could blame her.

Where the robbed stranger was now stood-floated? a cat with aquamarine fur, transparent wings, big green eyes, and an emerald embedded in the middle of its forehead.

Oh, did I forget to mention that the cat was writing with a pen on a clipboard?

Angie jumped off the sofa and ran to the floating cat, crushing it in a loving hug, which is returned. The two separated and smiled at each other. "It's good to see you again, Angie, and I wish I could stay and chat but [taps pen against the clipboard] I'm kind of running late. You know the drill." the cat said with a sad look, but quickly switched back to a blank expression.

"Oh,... don't worry Baby, it's alright… How's Skywynne and Mewni?"

The cat's eye twitched slightly at the question and let out an exasperated sigh, "Honestly Angie, it's in shambles. Skywynne's daughter has waged a full out war against the monsters and is struggling in keeping the allied kingdoms together. The fact that your son was not called years earlier is because Skywynne tried other candidates for the position to be 'Mewni's Champion' but that has been disastrous… She tried her best to keep your son from coming to Mewni and sends her deepest apologies for doing this but her daughter and the nobility have pressured her to call upon the contract you too made."

"Wow, it looks like I'm going to be busy this summer break." Marco said jokingly.

"How can you even _joke_ about that, Marco?! The place you're planning on going is in a state of WAR! Does that not bother you?!" exclaimed Janna, finally breaking out of Jackie's grasp.

"Oh, there is no reason to worry about his safety. Skywynne herself will look after his well-being." said Baby matter-of-factly.

Janna looked at the floating cat with a look of disbelief. " _I don't fucking know_ _who you are_! How can I trust you?!" Jackie rarely agreed with Janna, mostly due to how crazy she could be, but had to admit that Janna was making a good point.

"Janna, I understand you're frustrated, but Baby is a very good friend of mine and so is Skywynne, and trust me when I say that Marco is a lot safer in their hands than the entire world's armies combined." Angie could relate to Janna's anger, and was still worried about her son's safety, but trusted her friends with her life. What she _didn't_ trust was the nobility of Mewni and several other people close to the royal family.

Some, if not most of them, certainly still hated her guts and hoped that her son would handle them with better finesse than she had years ago.

Baby noticed Angie's expression, as if reading what she was thinking, and patted her on the back. "Don't worry, Angie, he'll be safe. I also know you'll want to check up on him so I'll deliver letters between the two of you on a weekly basis." she said with a smile.

Angie deeply appreciated her friend trying to cheer her up and nodded at her offer. She turned back to see how her son and friends were holding up but found that they were nowhere in sight. The sounds of several footsteps coming down from the direction of the stairs caught her attention, where she saw her son carrying a large duffel bag closely followed by Jackie.

She didn't look happy.

"How could you say that to her, Marco?! You know how she feels about you!" exclaimed Jackie as she continued to follow him down the steps.

"What's going on, Marco?" asked Angie concerned, rarely seeing Jackie get so worked up.

Marco placed the duffel bag by Baby's feet… floating feet? and ran a hand through his hair. He looked at his mother and shook his head, obviously not wanting to talk about it. Angie understood and didn't push her soon for an answer.

She'll just find out later.

"So, when can we go?" Marco asked Baby, obviously trying to change the subject.

"Well, we're already late, but now would be nice." replied Baby as she took out a pair of ornate looking scissors. She cut into the air as if it were paper, seeming to be tearing through the very fabric of space, as a swirling portal of many colors materialized.

Marco gave his mama a tight hug before separating. Angie gestured for him to lean forward and was met with a motherly kiss to his forehead, causing him to smile. "Be safe, _mijo_ , and listen to Skywynne's instructions as well as Baby's. Also, be on your best behavior. Mewni royalty will not take your sarcastic attitude with kindness. Trust me, I speak from experience."

Baby couldn't help but chuckle at how true those words were and of memories pertaining to Angie pissing off _a lot_ of nobles.

Marco nodded at his mother's words of wisdom and lifted his duffel bag off the ground, following Baby towards the portal. Right before they could walk through the portal, something hit him on the back of the head causing him to stop.

Marco looked down at the object and saw that it was the necklace he had given Janna after winning it at the school fair last year in exchange for his wallet. He turned around to see Janna by the stairs, her eyes were still puffy from crying. She began to stomp her way over to him but was stopped by Jackie before she could get her hands on him.

" _Choke on it, Marco_! *sniff* Have _**fun** playing_ **hero**!" Janna said with anger and sorrow. Before anyone else could say anything, Janna broke away from Jackie and ran out the back door. Jackie's eyes held nothing but anger and disappointment as they landed on Marco.

"Jackie I-"

"You know, Marco, I _understand_ that the way Janna sprung the question on you was out of the blue and was a little forceful by trying to get an answer out of you but you could have handled that _so much better_."

She shook her head at him and ran after Janna, knowing that her friend needed a shoulder to cry on and someone to vent to about recent events.

Angie looked at her son and raised an eyebrow at him. "So, mind telling me what happened or do I have to get it from the girls." she said with a frown. She loved her son with all her heart but had taught him better than to make a girl cry like that.

"Mama, [sighs] take care of them while I'm gone and whatever you do, do not [leans down to whisper something into her ear] tell Janna those words. I want to tell her personally when I get back." he said with a smirk at seeing his mama's embarrassed face.

Angie opened her mouth to say something but didn't get a chance to since Baby shoved her son through the portal. The flying cat turned to Angie and smiled before going through the portal herself, slowly closing after her.

Angie took a deep breath and exhaled, feeling like she had aged a few years in this day alone. She looked towards the door that lead to the backyard and stared at it for a few minutes before making her way over to the house phone. She dialed a number and waited for a few seconds until someone picked up.

"Hey, it's Angie… It's great to here you're doing fine after all these years... Hey, listen, I'm going to need a favor."

* * *

The throne room was beautiful beyond words.

It had sets of white and gold pillars, with beams connecting from the base to the ceiling, attached to the marble-like walls as numerous banners depicting a symbol of a thunderbolt in the middle of a crest hung from them. The windowpanes that decorated the left wall were depicting images of battles and other events pertaining to Mewni's history, while the right side held gigantic map of Mewni. A pair of six rows filled with nobility sat on the left and common folk on the right as they occupied the middle of the room, a lavish purple carpet cutting between them as it lead up a set of stairs to the thrones of the Queen and King of Mewni. The rulers were sandwiched between two identical golden monuments of an hourglass, which were empty of sand.

There was a tension in the room between the three parties: the Queen and King, nobility, and common folk that could be cut with a knife. The most annoyed party seemed to be the Queen given how tightly she was gripping the armrests of her throne.

"Like I've said _before_ , the Champion will be here so have _patience_. I'm sure there's a reason why he's late-"

The entire throne erupted in disapproval.

One noble rose from his seat, causing the nobility to quiet down, but the common folk didn't seem to care or notice him. The noble definitely stood out from most of his peers. He wore a crown worthy of royalty, an overly luxurious regal coat, leggings, and carried a saber in a sheath.

The man wore a white wig and had a mole on his powdered face, currently occupying a scowl.

"Your highness, you've delayed this ceremony long enough. We all _loved_ your war stories but I think I speak for the majority of us by saying enough is enough. You either _have_ a Champion or you _don't_."

The noble's words were met with small words and curt nods of agreement from nobility.

A large burly man stood up from the side of the common folk, quickly silencing the group, making it clear he was the spokesperson of the commoners. The man had a build worthy of that of a Mewman Knight. He wore a, simple, black button up shirt with grey trousers. His bearded face had a scar that passed over his right eye giving him an intimidating look but his eyes were what really sold the look.

They were the eyes of hardened individual who had seen many hardships, dealt with immense suffering, and loss. But, most importantly, they held a fiery determination to get things done.

"Your highness, I hate to agree with _him_ but he's right. This has been prolonged long enough, your _own_ daughters aren't even present. [Sighs] Your people are starving your highness, and excuse my rudeness, but I and my fellow people did not come here to wait around on this ' _Champion'_. Our attention is better used elsewhere, like finding a solution to the food shortages that have plagued the masses for far too long! Not to mention the monster raids of the food reserves actually filled with food!"

The Queen's face grew more annoyed and was about to say something when the hand of her husband squeezed hers. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself down. The Queen couldn't argue that what they were saying was wrong, but she was beyond stressed and wasn't in the mood to be nagged at about things she already knew were a problem. The absence of her daughters weren't helping, but she guessed it had something to do with her youngest one.

"King Spiderbite and Sir Aldwin, I understand your viewpoints and apologize for the delays. If the Champion is not here in the next five minutes, you may all leave. As for you, Sir Aldwin, I'll have my brother personally go down with you to see what can be done." she said with as little anger in her voice as possible.

Both men, as well as the rest, seemed okay with what the Queen had proposed so they sat back down and waited.

The King leaned over to his wife and blew air into her ear, gaining her attention.

"Hey, it'll be fine. I'm sure Baby will be here with the Champion soon and I have a good feeling that he will be perfect for the job." he whispered reassuringly.

"I just don't want to fail Star again, Alphonse. All the candidates we've presented to her by my mother's judgement have quit the next day and they were _perfect_ on paper. Hells, some of them would have given _Mina_ a good workout… [Sighs] I just hope this one is different." she whispered sadly.

The doors to the throne room burst wide open and everyone turned to look at the three princesses, slowly followed by their grandmother, that were coming down the middle aisle heading over to their parent's thrones.

The one leading the three was wearing a snug dark purple Victorian dress with a black band around her slender waist that almost reached her ankles, purple gloves that touched her elbows, a pair of black boots and a purple feathered hat that allowed her wavy dark green hair to reach her shoulders. Her soft, dark pink, face had magenta spades adorning her cheeks and were accompanied by a pair of strong magenta eyes. Her small lips were upturned into a small smile, as if victorious over something.

The girl she was pulling along by hand was wearing a dark blue gown decorated with star patterns, giving it a starry sky design, with white trim at the bottom that reached down to the floor, as well as a black choker around her neck. The princess had long wavy blonde hair that hung just below the back of her knees and sported a small golden tiara on her head. Her sickly pale face, slightly covered by her golden locks, failed to make her look any less beautiful, but it was obvious she wasn't well. The pink heart-stamped marks on her cheeks were faded and lacked any real color. As for her eyes, the blue in them looked lifeless and hazy.

The expression on her face was one of deep sadness.

The third princess was wearing a metallic-silver dressed combined with a light purple collared vest, barely passing her knees, with white shoulder tassels. She had long-straight baby blue hair, that touched the back of her calves and silver boots, with bangs the curled out from her forehead that made her golden tiara more noticeable on her head. Her pink face had diamond marks on her cheeks that were a darker shade than her face. The metallic-blue color of her eyes were breathtaking and she constantly looked around, analyzing everything she could.

Unlike the first princess, she had a frown on her face.

Following slowly behind them was a much older woman who wore a golden gown, that split in the middle and separated into the lower section of the gown, with a small cape flowing behind her as she walked. Her light auburn hair reached past her shoulders, only slightly, with a golden ruby encrusted crown resting on her head. Her skin tone was the same as the second princess', only healthier, and sported yellow hourglass marks on her pale cheeks. The deep sky blue of her eyes were almost electric with power, but held humility and humbleness.

The expression on her face was one of determination as she elegantly walked down the carpet that lead to her daughter's throne.

Once the four of them reached the foot of the steps that lead up to the Queen, they stopped and curtsied.

"Eclipsa, Moon, and Star why are you three late?" asked the Queen with sprinkles of anger.

Star looked down in shame at her mother's words while the other girls smiled apologetically at her. "Sorry for being late, mother, it was my fault. I couldn't find my crown so I asked Moon and Star to help me look for it." Eclipsa said while tapping her hat.

The Queen knew that that was a lie because her daughter _never_ misplaced that hat. She's had it since she was a child, a gift from her grandmother after coming back from one of her trips to another dimension.

Seeing the look on her daughter's face turning for the worse, Skywynne stepped in front of the girls in a protective manner.

"Let the girls be, Solaria. The real reason why they were late was because _I_ asked them to help me look for a ring that will help my friend's son when he gets here… [looks around] Andddd Baby is late. [Sighs] Hopefully Angie wasn't being difficult, not that I can blame her." she whispered that last part to herself.

Out of nowhere, a portal opened up near the girls and out stumbled Marco to the ground with his duffel bag, quickly followed up by Baby. The guards that aligned the walls rushed at him with spears, thinking he was an intruder but quickly stopped when they say Skywynne step in front of them.

"He is an _important_ _guest_ , so you can go back to your posts. You won't be needed." she said with authority, which the guards quickly obeyed. She may not be the Queen anymore but that didn't mean she didn't hold power.

She turned back to look at her old friend's son and couldn't help but smile at him. He definitely had taken after his father, but inherited Angie's personality.

How did she know this you ask?

Well, he was currently looking around the palace in awe, wonder, and confusion like his mother had many years ago. The crooked smile he had on his face was the spitting image of Angie's.

"Yup, he's definitely the one." she said with a confident grin as she made her way to him.

Alphonse leaned closer to his Queen, a pleased smile displaying on his face at seeing Marco's _interesting_ entrance, "Well, you got your wish, dear. He is certainly _different_."

* * *

 **A/N** : ***Wipes sweat from forehead* Wow, that was a long one. Sorry, not sorry, for the light-cliffhanger lol but this was a long teaser of what is to come. This is clearly an AU Star vs. story because of the characters and things that will go down later on so yeah. It's a mix of canon, tweaked to my liking, and** _ **a lot**_ **of OC's so heads up. Also, sorry in advance for spelling errors.**

 **I will pick right up where I left off in this story once I get out on break from college but, don't worry, I'll work on my other stories too. As always, feedback and comments are deeply appreciated since it helps me with the story, like if I did something wrong etc. I hope you all enjoyed the start of this new story which will be…** _ **interesting**_ **to say the least. The rating will give it away lol.**

 **See you all next time (hopefully next month)! Peaceee!- Sky**

' _ **Things will make sense as time progresses.'**_


	2. A Mewni Welcome

**A/N** **: Hello everyone! Happy New Year, 2019! Hopefully, this year is a good one lol. Thanks for all the amazing support, reviews, comments, etc.! I deeply appreciate it. Anyway, sorry for the delay in chapters lately, but finals for school were killing me and I managed to get a job soon after so yeah. I was looking for part-time stuff but it seems like I'm working full time… Well, enough of that. Time for some quick shout-outs!**

 **Resurrection99** **: Thanks for the kind words! I'll try to be consistent with 'good' story building lol.**

 **Gamelover41592** **: I feel the same way. Hopefully, we are both right.**

 **thelegendofstarco** **: I'm glad that my story is good enough to do that. It's a good sign of me doing something right, right? Lol**

 **Guest #1? (Since your username isn't visible to me)** **: As far as M rated sexual scenes go, I believe that I will be terrible at them so I don't think so? Hints, on the other hand, of M rated stuff happening may happen *wink*. As for Janna, I would like to incorporate her more into the story since she' such a fun character in my eyes. Of course, she's somewhat OOC in this story because the story isn't fully canon, as you will all see.**

 **Guest #2(Fanfic Critic)?** **: Thanks for the kind words and Janna… you'll see in this chapter lol. I'm glad I was able to portray Marco and Janna's chemistry to you, hopefully, others too. In regards to love interests for our favorite red-hoodie wearing teen, it's up to Marco to decide lol but I will say that it won't be a harem fanfic. Oh, in this story, Alphonse is King. It's not canon but I think it's obvious that this story won't be following** _ **most**_ **of it. And Genocide is always interesting… in stories, not real life lol. And I can't just focus on this story, sorry. Other people, maybe you do too, like my other stories so I can't just throw them under the bus to focus on one… which is probably what it seems like I'm doing with the gaps between my updates… I'll** _ **try**_ **to update regularly though. That's a promise.**

 **allen Vth** **: Whoa! First off, I** _ **love**_ **your MarcoxEclipsa story! And hope you continue it soon, if you can. It's very interesting, and we all need more MarcoxEclipsa stories… which I may also be writing in the future lol, maybe. Anyways, thanks for the kind words! The idea of Marco being 'an important knight' has certainly been done, a lot better than anything I'll be writing anytime soon due to time constraints but yeah lol. My 'version', if you could even call it that is slightly different since it's more… personal? One-on-one? Eh, this chapter will hopefully explain what I'm trying to say. One thing I will say with confidence is that Marco isn't going to be a pushover in this story.**

 **I just can't for the life of me see an older Marco as being one. The training he does/did will be known throughout the story, so don't worry. Most of your questions? (I think they are questions or at least thoughts lol) will be answered as the story progresses. Oh, lol Shastacan will appear in this story as well as his parents. On the idea of all three butterflies as being sisters, it's something I've been brainstorming with since I started my second story. I don't know if it's original or not, but I'm glad to be writing about it. The character of Baby is an interesting one so I decided to use her, randomly lol. As for Star… she's interesting.**

 ***Phew almost done with 'shout-outs' lol.***

 **DragonNightmare90** **: Thanks for the kinds words! It won't be a harem because that seems beyond my abilities at the moment. And Angie is going to be appearing a lot so prepare yourself!**

 **Guest? Allen Vth? (Idk confused lol)** **: Marco's stay on Mewni will be explained here, at least some of it, don't you worry. Angie is afraid for** _ **other reasons**_ **lol, but yeah. What kind of mother/parent figure doesn't exaggerate?**

 **biob1** **: Thanks!**

 **Guest (The Book of Eli)** **: I was hoping for that lol, thanks.**

 **paolotejadaj** **: Thanks for the kind words! And you'll see soon lol.**

 **Rackno Warlord** **: Lol here you go, enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer** **:** _ **I do not claim the right to Star vs. the Forces of Evil or any of the characters in the show. They belong to Disney and the show's creator, Daron Nefcy. I do, however, claim the right to the plot as well as any original characters that may appear in this fic. - Sky**_

* * *

Marco couldn't believe his eyes.

The Mewni throne room was amazing!

It was above and beyond what he expected, putting the ones he had seen in movies to shame. The gold with white was a nice touch and, even he could tell that the windowpanes were absolute quality. There were several similarities to other royal-like architecture he had seen and read about in books about Medieval Europe, a not so happy time in Earth's history.

Also, being dragged to art museums, against his will, by Janna had certainly cultivated his appreciation of art even if just a little so he was going to thank her when he got back.

Marco was about to start admiring the hourglass sculptures when he felt a soft hand touch his, snapping him back to the reason why he was in Mewni. He looked down and came face to face with a woman (about his mother's age) smiling at him. She had sky blue eyes that held the same level of kindness and raw power that his mother had. He could also see that she was very beautiful, especially her mix orange-auburn hair that seemed to be almost shining, but what caught his eyes were the marks on her cheeks.

Two yellow hourglasses, one on each cheek.

A burst of gibberish assaulted Marco's ears, causing him to glance around the room in search of the sounds. As he looked, he noticed there were two groups: commoners and royalty which obviously didn't seem to get along since they were separated. The two sides seemed to be talking? If they were, Marco couldn't understand them.

It was like they were speaking an alien lang- Oh wait.

Marco looked back down at his hand when he felt something being slipped into his ring finger.

' _Whoah, am I getting married? I don't think I'm ready for such a big commitment._ '

Before Marco could think of other idiotic things to say, a sharp pain went up his arms, causing him to snap to attention. Suddenly, the gibberish he was hearing started to make sense to him little by little until he eventually understood it all.

What he picked up from the two sides didn't seem... nice, and that was putting it lightly.

Marco was, once again, snapped back to attention when the woman snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"There, you're all set. [Clears throat] My name is Skywynne Butterfly and welcome to Mewni," she said with an elegant curtsy and welcoming smile, which fell once her eyes landed on the nobles and commoners as she rose. "I _deeply_ apologize for their rude behavior and negative comments that will be thrown at you during your stay," Skywynne said sadly.

Marco was surprised at how sincere her apology sounded and couldn't help but smile at her effort of trying to make him feel welcomed. "It's fine, ma'am. So, you're my mama's friend?" he asked.

Skywynne smiled and nodded, remembering the adventures Angie and she had done. "Yes, and I must say that you remind me of your mother quite a lot. And on that note, please, just try to keep the sarcasm to a minimum. I promise that I will look after you but I would appreciate it if you didn't make my life _interesting_ while you're here." she said with a smile that betrayed her words.

Marco smiled back and extended his hand, "I look forward to working with you and your family." Skywynne sighed and shook his hand, recognizing the look on his face after seeing the exact one on his mother countless times when she told Angie to mind what she said. However, she looked forward to seeing what her friend's son will do during his stay on Mewni. ' _Hopefully nothing deadly_.' she quickly thought.

Marco and Skywynne were brought back from their personal conversation and into the noise-filled throne room. Skywynne glanced at Baby and gave her a nod, which was returned. The flying cat made her way over to the Queen and whispered something into her ear.

The Queen stood up from her royal throne and everyone instantly stopped what they were doing. She looked around the room until her eyes landed on Marco, a chill running down his spine at how intense they were.

"Come on, let's make our way over to my daughter and, whatever you do, _please_ be respectful." Marco sensed the serious tone in her voice and decided to listen to her advice. He didn't want or need enemies so soon, especially the one he would be working for, so he picked up his duffel bag and followed Skywynne.

As they walked, Marco's attention shifted to the three girls at the bottom of the steps that lead up to the Queen and King's thrones. The girls had marks on their cheeks like Skywynne did so they were obviously related. Two of the girls, one in a purple victorian dress and the other in a metallic-silver one, were squinting their eyes at him as if analyzing his very being. The girl with the night sky themed dress was looking at him but... _wasn't_.

Her eyes lacked any _life_ behind them and that alarmed him because he had seen that look once before…

Skywynne noticed him staring at Star and nudged him to get his attention. "I'll explain things in detail later but, for now, pay attention to what's in front of you." Marco pried his eyes off of Star and faced forward, making a mental note to keep a close eye on the blonde girl.

They both reached the bottom of the stairs and Marco noticed that the Queen also sported marks on her cheeks (Duh). He quickly glanced to the right of her and saw a man, who he assumed to be the King, smiling at him.

He didn't understand why but didn't have the time to find out after hearing the Queen clear her throat to speak.

"I am Solaria Butterfly, Queen of Mewni, and I welcome you. [Raises an eyebrow] What is your name?" she stated with a loud authoritative voice for everyone to hear.

Skywynne nudged Marco again and gestured for him to step forward, which he did. "My name is Marco Ubaldo Diaz, your majesty. How may I be of service?" Marco replied with an equally loud voice and bowed to Solaria. A small smile appeared on the Queen's face for a second, then went back to one of business.

"Marco Ubaldo... Diaz, I'm under the impression that you have some knowledge as to why you've been summoned here, correct? [He nods] Good, now let me inform you of what the job as 'Mewni's Champion' will _mostly_ require of you." Solaria walked down the steps and gestured for the blonde blue-eyed girl to come to her. She put a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder while looking into her eyes. Solaria gave her a sad smile and gestured towards Marco.

Star nodded and began to walk towards him, her gaze forward.

Unblinking.

She stopped a foot away from Marco and was dumbfounded now that he could get a good look at her facial features.

Why?

Because she was _absolutely_ … jaw-dropping.

Her sickly pale face looked abnormally smooth. The faded hearts stamped on her cheeks were a little hypnotizing, even with their sickly look, and her crimson lips were small but were _very_ endearing. Her long blonde hair looked silky and smooth to the touch.

She _looked_ like a textbook example of a princess, even _better_ … but…

Her _**eyes**_ held such a deep sadness behind the blue that it made him _compelled_ to make her feel better.

Her _**eyes**_ looked lifeless and dull, spiking his curiosity in _wanting_ to see how they would look if they were filled with energy and joy.

Her _**eyes**_ …

It was too much.

Marco wanted to break his gaze but he _couldn't_. He would have preferred to stare at her slim-fit body since he could handle _that_... thanks to Janna's... Anything seemed like a better alternative than to continue looking into her eyes.

The sorrow and pain in them were too much, even for him.

What did a person have to go through to have such **broken** eyes?

"The girl in front of you, Marco Diaz, is Star Butterfly, my youngest daughter. [Star curtsied] Your top priority, for now, is to look after her well being _no matter what_. Her life comes before yours, **always**. As for how long you'll be staying… [looks at Skywynne and smiles] I hope you didn't have plans back home since you'll be staying for a _full_ _year_."

This snapped Marco out of whatever was going on in his mind at record speeds, giving him a bit of vertigo.

Janna was going to kill him…

"Solaria, that was _not_ part of the deal!" exclaimed Skywynne, "Marco was to stay for only _three months_! You can't-"

"Do you accept Marco Ubaldo _Diaz_?" Solaria asked with a smile, completely ignoring her mother.

Marco scoffed and shifted his attention to the only person whose opinion actually mattered to him at the moment regarding his decision. He moved closer to Star and leaned forward, "What do you think about [gestures to the entire room] _this_?... Do you think I'm qualified? Do you _accept_ me as your champion?" he whispered softly so only she could hear him.

Star was surprised to finally be able to hear his voice.

No one had _ever_ asked for _her_ opinion on the matter, so the question caught her off guard. Star slowly rose her gaze to meet his (because Marco was a foot taller than her) and was surprised further by how caring and genuine his eyes were. She could even see her own reflection in his soft chocolate eyes and it felt… warm.

 _Familiar_.

' _His eyes… are just like in the dreams…_ '

The pendant, she received from her grandmother at a young age, had always been cold to the touch except for a couple of random spikes of heat throughout her young life. However, Star's breath caught in her throat once the pendant began to warm her bosom, the warmth spreading all over her body and making her feel…

After seconds, that felt like hours to her, Star opened her mouth, "I-I… think… you're-"

"Your Highness, you can't be _serious_. You're going to allow that-that _woman's_ _**son**_ to serve as Mewni's Champion? That's preposterous!" King Spiderbite interjected, followed by nods of approval by the majority of nobles.

Sir Aldwin stood up from the commoner's side, who were surprisingly quite the entire time. "Your Highness, once again, I hate to agree with _him_ but the child seems to be… _lacking_ in qualifications to serve as Mewni's Champion. He-"

Sir Aldwin was cut off by the sound of someone giggling, which soon turned into laughter. Everyone's eyes turned towards the origin of the sound, who noticed all the attention shift to her so she stopped laughing. "[Wiping a few tears away] S-Sorry, everyone. I just find it hilarious that you all think Marco is _not_ qualified to be Mewni's Champion. [Chuckles] He is the _most_ _qualified_ out of everyone in this _entire_ dimension!" Skywynne stated with confidence.

She walked up to Marco and Star, her expression changing from one of confidence to sadness. "He was the first one on my list, Star. Maybe… maybe if I would have chosen him before the others then things might have been _different_ … I'm sorry... I'm sorry for putting you through bad experiences. I failed you… [Looks at Marco] I'm sorry that I pulled you out of your life, your _world_ , to do something you had no say in since it was agreed upon before you were even born… but _please_ **accept**. I-I know it's selfish of me, a complete stranger, to ask something from you but my granddaughter has been through enough and _**I know**_ you're the only one who can help her and my family. So ple-"

Skywynne's words died on her lips when she saw Marco walk away, towards the nobles and commoners, thinking of the worst. She glanced at Star, fearing what her reaction might be to Marco walking away, but was confused as to why her granddaughter's expression hadn't changed.

In fact, Star's eyes had lost some of their usual dullness.

Her gaze seemed to be following something, so Skywynne turned towards the direction she was facing and figured out that she was looking at Marco. She could sense that the necklace she had given Star was _finally_ working and it brought a smile to her face, accompanied by a couple of tears running down her hourglass marked cheeks.

She should have brought him to Mewni _years_ ago.

Suddenly, Marco stopped and turned towards the former Queen of Mewni and the blonde princess, giving them a quick smile, before turning to face the unknown crowd before him with a look of indifference.

Marco rarely got upset or 'triggered' but there were a few things he couldn't stand, and being judged unfairly was one of them. ' _Let's see how far I can mess with these **fuckers** ,_' he thought with annoyance. He wasn't going to let these people, who he didn't know, criticize his abilities. Abilities he had honed through sweat and tears for the majority of his life.

Fuck them.

"Ladies and Gentleman, I can assure you that I am _qualified_ to be Mewni's Champion. In fact, I've been training for the position since I was _**six**_ so [shrugs] I could care less about what you all think of me. My job's goal, which has now become a personal one, is to keep Star safe, _not you_. I was trained to help [points] _Star_ , after all. _Her opinion_ is above everyone's in this room so you can all take your thoughts about me and shove them up your-".

"HAPPY THOUGHTS!" exclaimed Skywynne, interrupting Marco. She noticed the odd looks she was getting and felt embarrassed at the random outburst but she couldn't let Marco finish that sentence. It would only complicate things. "Ahem, what Marco was [shoots a glare at him] _trying_ to say is that he would rather take constructive criticism than blatant rejection."

"Nooo, that's not what I-" Marco didn't get to finish his sentence once he felt Skywynne's full glare on him. It kind of reminded him of the one his mother would use and it unnerved him.

Women are scary.

Most of the nobles were outraged! They couldn't believe that a potential candidate for Mewni's Champion to be so disrespectful and vulgar!

Eclipsa and Moon were surprised at Marco's outburst, the former growing a smile on her face while the latter nodded in approval for some reason. The King of Mewni stifled a laugh and acted like he was coughing to mask his previous action.

King Spiderbite rose his hand, taming his group, so he could speak. "It would seem that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. [Gestures to nobles] I think I speak for the majority when I say that we don't approve of Marco _Diaz_ as Mewni's Champion… [smiles creepily] _unless_ he is willing to prove otherwise?"

Skywynne narrowed her eyes at the noble, then turned to Marco and shook her head since she had a bad feeling about what King Spiderbite might propose.

Marco, acting like he didn't receive or see the message, turned towards the obnoxious noble and smiled back. "Sure, I'm game," he said smugly.

Everyone faced the Queen and waited for her decision on the matter.

Solaria, for the most part, found Marco's attitude to be rather rude but somewhat justified. She preferred to judge someone based on their actions, the only exceptions being monsters, and didn't believe Marco to be _lacking_ but still had a few tiny doubts about the boy. She was curious to see what her daughter's potential-protector was capable of.

He was a teenager after all, even if the way he looked betrayed that generalization.

However, she didn't trust King Spiderbite's tone but couldn't deny the idea of his 'proposal' because the majority of the nobles were stubbornly loyal to him so if Spiderbite denied Marco then there was no possibility of him becoming Mewni's Champion even if the commoners were to be on his side.

Solaria's hands were tied and _he_ knew it.

"... What do you have in mind?" she asked hesitantly.

King Spiderbite's creepy smile grew wider, "I propose that he show his abilities in a fight against Mewni's own up and coming warrior… _Mina Loveberry_."

Everyone, except for Marco, gasped or had a look of worry on their face as soon as the name was thrown out into the open.

Mina had risen through the ranks of Mewni's military in a short span of time because of her intellectual and battle prowess. No one matched her in tactics, let alone brute strength. To the monsters, she is known as the "Harold of Death," a nickname given to her after single-handedly taking out a _100_ monsters with her _bare hands_ in about an hour.

The battlefield was painted with blood, and still is to this day as a reminder to the monsters about how pointless it is to continue fighting the Kingdom of Mewni while Mina Loveberry is still around.

Solaria sighed and shook her head, knowing she had to accept to give Marco a shot or decline, ending his chances at becoming Mewni's Champion. Truth be told, her mother's choice this time around seemed... _promising_ , even with the lack of manners, and her husband seemed to _like_ Marco for some odd reason. Alphonse hadn't stopped smiling since Marco stumbled into the throne room so she took that as a good sign regarding the boy's character since she trusted her husband's judgment, especially when it came to people.

Solaria wasn't thrilled about the idea of Marco fighting Mina, because she feared he would be snapped in half. However, as stated before, she still wanted to see what he was capable of. Her daughter deserved the best of the best and wasn't going to settle for anything less, especially after what she has been through…

Solaria opened her mouth to respond but stopped when she saw her mother speedwalk up to Marco, anger evident on her face and stride, and smack him on the back of the head loud enough to gain everyone's undivided attention.

"Stop acting like your mother! [Groans and turns to Solaria] He accepts whatever will be thrown at him so just bring Mina over here _**but**_ the fight will last no more than _five_ _minutes_. This entire thing has been dragged out for far too long, [chuckles] even though the end result hasn't changed since Marco got here." Skywynne stated, shooting a fake smile towards King Spiderbite in hope of getting under his vile skin.

It worked, if the frown etched on his face was any indication.

Solaria reluctantly agreed with her mother's terms, which King Spiderbite seemed to be okay with since he didn't argue with them and neither did the rest of the audience, so she sent one of the guards to bring Mina to the throne room as quickly as possible.

Marco, rubbing the back of his head from the hit, leaned over to Skywynne, "So, who's Mina Loveberry?" he whispered.

The former Queen of Mewni shook her head at him, "That's not important right now just… be careful okay? I promised your mother that I would bring you back safe and in one piece so, if things get out of hand, I'll step in and-"

"I'll be fine," Marco smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Trust me, if shit hits the fan, I'll surrender faster than you can blink… I have people to get back to after all." He said with a crooked smile, which turned into one of determination. "But it seems like I'm needed here so I'll stay until I'm not needed anymore [glances at Star] so I'm not planning on losing any time soon."

Skywynne, ignoring Marco's use of a certain word, nodded at him, surprised at how determined he looked. She also caught the glance he directed at Star but didn't comment on it because she knew what it meant.

Before Skywynne could give Marco any words of encouragement, the doors of the throne room flung open and a light purple-haired young woman, with the similar complexion that Mewmans tended to have, walked into the room, which went silent at her presence. She was wearing a commander's (at least that's what it looked like to Marco) seafoam button-up long-sleeve vest with tassels on her shoulders. A helmet with a single spike on top of it laid on her head, somewhat allowing her purple hair to cascade down from it.

The skirt she was wearing, which only reached just above her pale knees, was dark green and looked to be made from the same material as Moon's battle-dress. As for her footwear, the boots she sported were a dark purple with iron shin guards that each had crescent moon insignias engraved into them.

Her stride, the way she held herself as she moved towards the Queen, was... **intimidating**.

Mina walked past Marco, as if he wasn't there, but acknowledged Skywynne with a curt nod. She noticed the three princesses, but only made eye-contact with one of them… As soon as she reached the bottom of the steps, Mina kneeled and put her closed fist above her heart.

"My Queen, you asked for me?"

"Yes, Mina, I did… Your services are needed right at this moment and place to help with deciding if this [gestures to Marco] young man is the right individual to become Mewni's Champion. By your services, I mean that you will fight with Marco for five minutes, no more no less. By doing this you will allow everyone in this throne room to evaluate him based on the performance. [Glances at King Spiderspite] You are not allowed to go easy on him unless told otherwise. Understood?" stated Solaria with a blank expression, trying her best to hide her worry for the boy.

Mina stayed still for a few seconds, probably pondering what she had just been told, and slowly rose from her kneeling form. She slowly turned her head towards Marco and her eyes went wide for a split second before going back to their neutral look, while her body tensed slightly. Mina turned back to face Solaria and bowed, "I will do as you wish, your majesty."

Marco caught Mina's reaction and was confused as to why she had reacted that way. ' _It must have been because… of how_ _ **gorgeous**_ _I look... but, in all seriousness, that was weird._ ' Marco thought.

Mina made her way over to him, ignoring the look that a certain princess was giving her, and stopped a couple feet away from him. "Are you ready?" she asked. Marco rolled his neck, producing a satisfying pop to occur, stretched his arms, legs, and back before looking at Mina dead in the eyes and shrugging.

Mina nodded and took a step back, now leaving a five-foot distance between the two. Marco realized that this was a _serious_ event so he decided to up his game. ' _No use fooling around_ … _as much_. _I'll be damned if I trained all these years only for it to amount to nothing. Uhh, I_ _ **really**_ _don't like it when things get serious._ '

Marco took a step forward then, suddenly, made a beeline to Star which surprised everyone, especially her. He took off his red hoodie, "Mind if I leave this with you?" he asked. However, Star, as well as everybody else in the throne room, was too busy staring at him.

Why?

Because he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath the hoodie so his bare upper body was available for everyone's eyes to feast on.

"Oh heavens… is it hot in here?" said Queen Spiderbite from her seat, accompanied by nods and words of verification from women on both sides of the throne room.

The men, except for a noble in the back, scowled at them.

Skywynne's eyes were as large as dinner plates at the scene before her but quickly composed herself. ' _What in sweet HEAVENS has Angie been feeding and training the boy to do?... Good heavens..._ '

Solaria was both shocked and impressed at the boy's physique. It was now obvious that what he had said about training for years to be true because the only way to get a body like that was through hard work… and magic, but she doubted he knew about that. Alphonse cleared his throat loud enough so only his wife could hear, snapping her out of her staring. "Close your mouth before you drool, dear," he said with a fake hurt tone. She turned towards him and gave him a sheepish smile, conveying how sorry she was through her eyes.

Eclipsa could feel the heat rising on her pale cheeks, never seeing a _man's_ body before because that's what she was staring at. ' _He certainly doesn't look to be lacking_ _ **anything**_ _,_ ' she quickly thought with a dazed grin.

The way his chest was _sculpted_ forced her to swallow back the saliva that was accumulating in her mouth as if she were looking at chocolate. His shoulders were _toned_ with muscle and just looked… _perfect_ , but what almost made her swoon were his-

"Abs…" whispered Moon, a blush clearly visible on her face. _Never_ had she _seen_ a body like Marco's. Sure, she had seen the fit bodies of the knights while she practiced down at their barracks but this was _different_. "Abs… four rows of themmmm…"

Star also stared at Marco's abs for a few seconds before closing her eyes, the heat on her face increasing by the second. She opened them slowly and her eyes went wide once she noticed what was on Marco's chest.

It was a pendant… just like hers… except the symbol engraved on his was different.

The hourglass symbol looked to be slowly _changing_ to something else. It almost looked like a… heart?

"St… Star… Star, hey, are you in there?" asked a worried Marco, snapping Star out of her trance. She reached for the pendant on her chest, grasping at it through the gown fabric, and could feel the warmth increasing at an alarming rate. Star looked up to face Marco and just stared into his eyes, not saying a single word.

"Umm, okay?... I'm just going to leave my hoodie here, okay?" Marco folded and placed his sweater on the ground near Star's feet. He started to make his way back to Mina and Star began to slowly panic.

The intense warmth she was feeling was fading with every step that Marco took. The frigid cold her body had been accustomed to throughout the years, along with the _bad_ feeling, was creeping back onto her skin.

Star craved the warmth, warmth that she hadn't felt in years, and the lack of it was **maddening**.

Marco heard the sound of heels hitting marble at a quick pace, the sound getting closer to him, so he turned around to see what was happening. All he had time to see was blonde hair flash before his eyes before feeling a set of slender arms wrap around his waist, a feeling of ice cold water being poured all over his body soon followed. Marco looked down with surprise at Star burying her face into his chest, who let out a sigh of relief at feeling the warmth return.

"S-Star? W-What's going on?"

"..."

"Star?" Marco asked again, now worried.

"... D-Don't go."

The way she said that _really_ worried him. It was straightforward but it sounded like she was _pleading_ , almost desperately.

Marco moved slightly, only for Star to tighten her grip around his waist.

' _Okay, Marco, how are you going to handle this?_ ' the latino asked himself, surprisingly calm about the situation.

However, everyone in the throne room, even King Spiderbite, looked surprised at the scene before them which is why it was so quiet and no one had bothered to try and break the silence.

The Butterfly family was the most surprised but mostly shocked, at seeing Star act so forward with someone she _just met_ after years of isolation in her room, only leaving to do the necessities and overall disinterest in _everything_. Both of her sisters had their mouths agape, noticing that Star wasn't having trouble speaking or showing emotion, while her mother smiled at the sight but then shot her own mother a frown. Her father was smiling from ear to ear, not seeing her daughter show emotion in such a long time.

As for Skywynne, she whispered "YES," before going back to having a beaming wide grin on her face.

Marco tried to move again but was met with the same result. "Star... I promise you that I'm not going anywhere out of your reach, okay? But I need you to let me go so I can fight Mina, win, and then have some of my questions answered because this all seems batshit crazy. Oh, and get something to eat in between since I'm starting to feel hungry…"

Star looked up from his chest, eyes sparkling, and locked gazes with him. "You _promise_?"

"Yes, so could you let me go? I like hugs as much as the next guy but it's going to be difficult fighting with you strapped to my waist," he said with a grin. Star returned the gesture, further surprising everyone witnessing the interaction between the two, and slowly let go of her grip.

"Use my hoodie if you want." he quickly said before returning to face Mina, leaving a smiling Star behind…

… Who ran back to where the red hoodie was and struggled to lift it up, but quickly put it on once she did. ' _It still has his warmth… but it's not better than the real thing_.' she thought sadly to herself.

After a few more seconds, Marco was five feet away from Mina again, ready to fight.

"Alright, Mina, let's make these five minutes _interesting_. [Cracks knuckles] I'm ready whenever you are," he said with a cheeky smile, taking his karate stance.

Mina raised an eyebrow at his stance but readied herself for combat. She lifted her fists near her face, like a boxer, and stared at Marco with such an intensity that it would have frozen him in place if he hadn't trained under someone whose gaze was _a lot_ scarier.

' _How does she know a boxer's stance?... Hmmm, I guess she's quick on her feet. I better play this safe until I know what I'm dealing with._ '

"So is there any particular reason why you removed your clothes and are now half-naked?" Mina asked in a neutral tone.

Marco shrugged, "I figured the ladies would like the show."

Mina frowned and rushed him, almost landing a solid punch on his cheek if he hadn't shifted in time. He rolled behind her and tried to sweep her legs in the process, but she did a front flip and landed a couple feet away from him.

Marco quickly stood up and gave Mina a nod of approval. "Nice hit and footwork. I almost didn't see it in time," he said while rubbing his cheek.

Once again, Mina rushed him, but this time Marco saw through her fast footwork and was ready for her. He waited for her to throw a punch, shifted, and moved into her core, connecting a solid open-palmed strike that had his entire weight behind it into her sternum.

Mina flew back a couple yards, landing on the marble floor and skidding to a stop by the steps near the thrones. Solaria looked down at Mina, shocked at seeing how easily she had been knocked back by Marco. Mina's eyes were wide open with shock and surprise, not having felt her body hit the ground in battle in such a long time.

She placed her hands on the ground and used them to propel herself onto her feet, facing Marco with a shocked expression. "You _really_ shouldn't have done that," she whispered, but everyone heard the anger in her tone.

Marco chuckled at her reaction and readied himself, this time copying Mina's stance, which only angered her further.

Mina charged at Marco, but abruptly stopped a foot away from him and shifted on the balls of her feet, appearing on Marco's right. He placed his arm down in a defensive position to block the attack and felt her shin guard make contact with it, sending him rolling a couple yards until he stopped himself with his left arm. Marco tried to use his right arm to help himself off the ground but realized that the hit had numbed his entire arm.

The force had sent his arm into shock, which caused him to frown. ' _I guess I won't be using this arm anytime soon_.'

Marco, still keeping his eye on Mina, took a deep breath and exhaled, "Skywynne, how much time is left?" he somewhat yelled since she was across the room.

"Three minutes!" she replied.

Marco groaned and began to walk towards Mina, who hadn't moved from the spot where she had landed the kick.

"That kick should have _shattered_ your arm," Mina stated, "but all it seemed to do was numb it. [Squints eyes] I think we both know you can't fight me with only one arm."

Marco scoffed, "Oh Mina, there's _a lot_ of things I can do with just _one arm_." he said with a cheeky smile, causing her to frown at the innuendo but the blush slowly rising on her cheeks told a different story. Marco noticed that the women in the throne room sported a similar blush to Mina's, except for Star who looked at him confused on what he meant.

" _Wow_ , you're all [gestures to the entire room] sickos, except for Star, for thinking wrong. I meant like doing push-ups or something," he said with fake innocence.

Mina released an exasperated sigh and ran at Marco, who closed his eyes. "Oh, here's a fun fact about me that you probably won't care about: I've defeated my mother with only one arm… [Mina reached Marco and sent a flying kick aimed at his temple] … when I was thirteen."

Skywynne's face paled when she heard those words. Angie was the strongest person, when Angie was eighteen, that she had ever seen that wasn't born with magic or powers so hearing Marco say that he was _stronger_ than _her_ at the age of _thirteen_ was alarming in its own right.

What and how had Angie been training her son for him to reach such a level?

Everyone's eyes went wide when Marco grabbed Mina out of the air with his good arm and pulled her down towards his knee, making contact with her stomach.

Mina gasped and hunched over at the sudden loss of air and searing pain in her body.

Marco was about to lift her off his knee but felt Mina's hands grip his wrist and send him over her shoulder, landing on his back against the cold marble floor.

Now it was his turn to gasp at the sudden loss of air and stinging icy sensation.

Mina, clutching her stomach, rose her foot and sent it down towards Marco's face. He moved his head at the last second, hearing marble crack under Mina's foot, and rolled away from her. He stood up, pain shooting up the left side of his back where he landed.

"Fuck," he whispered, feeling his arm begin to numb again.

His eyes landed on Mina and he blinked.

Huge mistake.

When Marco opened his eyes, he came face to face with her foot and could do nothing but wait for it to knock him out, to render him unconscious, but then something strange happened.

The pendant, which had somehow managed to stay on during the fight, began to rapidly warm his chest. A renewed vigor shot through his entire body, allowing him to lift both his arms and catch Mina's foot just before it could make contact.

Marco pushed her foot away, staggering Mina, and grabbed her by the front of her vest. He pulled her in with tremendous speed and force that her helmet fell off her head. She barely reacted in time, grabbed Marco's waist with her strong legs, and twisted her body so they both fell to the ground, where she rushed to straddle him.

Mina reeled back her fist and was about to send it downward when-

"TIME!" yelled Skywynne.

-her fist stopped an inch from his nose but winced seconds after.

She looked down at the area she felt the pain and noticed that Marco had pinched her by the way his fingers were closed.

' _Sneaky fucker,_ ' she thought with a frown.

Marco stared at Mina, and she did the same.

It was awkward.

Marco sat up and supported his and her weight with his uninjured arm, which startled her off of him at the sudden unbalance, almost tipping over to the floor. "Phew, _that_ got intense at the end huh? [Smiles] Remind me not to get on your bad side, Mina."

Mina rolled her eyes at him as she stood up and walked over to Solaria, who was at the bottom of the steps with her daughters, while slightly clutching her stomach. Marco stood up, not noticing that he was a bit sweaty from the exchange that started minutes ago.

He shot a smug glance at King Spiderbite before following Mina, passing by a stunned Skywynne, and stopping before the Queen of Mewni.

"You have certainly proved yourself to all of us here, Marco Ubaldo Diaz, especially me. Not many can take a beating from Mina and walk or _live_ to tell about it so there is no doubt in my mind that you are capable of being Mewni's Champion… [Turns to face the crowd] Does anyone object to the _facts_ regarding Marco's 'abilities' to protect my daughter?"

No one raised their hands or said a word. King Spiderbite sat down and looked absolutely livid, much to the Butterfly family's and Marco's amusement.

Skywynne, who had finally snapped out of her shock, made her way next to Marco. She patted his back and went on the tips of her feet to get closer to Marco's ear, "Congratulations. Maybe, next time, you'll try a little harder." she whispered with humor in her voice.

Marco glanced at her and smiled, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Skywynne was about to reply when Solaria cleared her throat, gaining everyone's undivided attention. "Marco Ubaldo Diaz, do you accept the offer of being Mewni's Champion, along with the conditions I laid out for you?" asked the Queen in a booming voice so everyone could hear her.

Marco noticed Star looking at him, who was rubbing the fabric of her dress nervously and smiled at her. She gasped and grinned as far as her round heart-stamped cheeks would allow. He looked down at the pendant on his chest and studied it in his hand for a few seconds since it looked _different_.

Where the hourglass symbol used to be was now replaced by the symbol of a heart.

' _Huh, that's new_.'

Marco was snapped out of his thoughts by a jab to his sore ribs. He already knew who it was so he didn't even bother to look at her. He faced the Queen of Mewni and nodded, "I accept your majesty… but I would like to discuss changing a few things to the deal." he whispered the last part, to which the Queen gave a nod of acknowledgment.

"Very well, as of today, Marco Ubaldo Diaz will be known as Mewni's Champion! [Everyone seated stood up] Now, Marco, kneel before your Queen."

Marco raised an eyebrow at this and chuckled, "My _Queen_ isn't in this dimension, your highness." he whispered to Solaria, which Skywynne was able to overhear.

Solaria smiled at the boy, which made him uncomfortable with the way she was doing it. She took a step towards him and looked him dead in the eyes with such a coldness that he wished he hadn't removed his hoodie.

" **Don't** push it. Now _kneel_." Solaria stated through gritted teeth, still keeping her smile.

Marco quickly kneeled before Solaria and lowered his head, mimicking what he had seen happen in movies. Solaria unsheathed her wand, which turned into a long broadsword that radiated raw-intense power.

It was making it hard to breathe around the object due to the heat.

Solaria placed her sword over Marco's shoulder, his shoulder screaming at the sudden blistering heat but chose to endure it.

"Rise, Marco."

Marco stood up and faced the crowd, where Star (wearing his hoodie) soon joined his side and gave him a small smile which he gladly returned.

Solaria placed her hand on Marco's shoulder, and rose her wand forward, "I present Mewni its **Champion** , Marco Ubaldo Diaz!"

The throne room exploded in applause, except for King Spiderbite who was slow clapping, and cheers.

' _Wow, all it took to impress these people was me fighting a woman with hulk strength… Yup, this place is fucked._ '

* * *

Off in a far away unknown pocket of space, stood-floated a castle made out of crystal. It would have been shining but the lack of sunlight, or any source of light at the moment, denied it that chance. Above the steel reinforced doors was a golden plaque that read: BUREAUCRACY OF MAGIC in large bold letters and ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK in smaller but still bold letters at the bottom.

Inside one of the many lavish rooms that were held in the labyrinth-like corridors of the establishment were five beings that just radiated magical power. One being looked like a tall goat that stood on its hind legs and wore a faded robe. Another appeared to be made of pure crystal, with one large eye and... snakes for hands?

What the hell?

Another being was obviously too big for the room since only his large white skull-head, with swords as horns, was present thanks to a portal of some kind. The other being looked to be a demon if the golden horns with a floating flame in the middle, above her obsidian tiara, were any indication. She wore an orange-fiery gown that hugged her body _just_ right, highlighting her voluptuous figure. The demoness had an alabaster skin tone, long silky red hair, and was easily the second shortest of the five present.

She looked pale… which was hard to tell due to her skin tone.

The last being was a small-blue-floating humanoid figure with a crystal on his forehead that gave off a sage vibe… in an ironic way if that makes any sense? He, as well as the other four, were looking into a crystal ball that stood in the middle of the large round table they all occupied.

The live feed of Marco asking Star, while the nobles and commoners were still applauding, if there was anything he could eat in the castle was the last thing the five magical beings saw before the transmission cut off.

"[Chuckles] It seems Angie was right about her son. He certainly is _special_. [Smiles sadly] I haven't seen Star smile like that in years…" sadly said the blue floating individual.

"He certainly is if he could hold his own against Mina for that long." commented the giant cosmic skull.

"Bahhh, bah."

?

"Lekmet says that "Marco reminds him of Angie" and "believes he is the perfect person for the job." I have to agree with Lekmet. Marco has some sweet moves and I can't wait to spare with him! What do you think Hekapoo?" said the crystal being.

The one known as Hekapoo seemed to be lost in a trance as her eyes were still on the crystal ball. She had a stunned expression etched on her face and her eyes were dilated.

"Hekapoo, are you alright?" asked the cosmic skull.

This seemed to snap Hekapoo out of her trance, blinking rapidly a few times as if to regain her senses.

"H-Huh? Oh, y-yeah, I'm fine Omni. I just… [glances at crystal and clears her throat] Anyways, I think he'll do fine. Glossaryck, can we wrap this meeting up? I have... ummm im-important things to go do back home." she said nervously.

The floating blue-short-man known as Glossaryck raised an eyebrow at Hekapoo's odd behavior but shrugged it off. "Sure, the meeting is dismissed. I have to go talk to the Queen about a few things anyway."

The three beings took out scissors and opened portals with them. They walked into swirling gates, Omni just retracting his head back into his portal, and left the blue magical being alone in the room with nothing but his thoughts.

' _Oh Angie, what are you scheming now_?' he thought with a smile before snapping his fingers and vanishing from the room, most likely going to talk with the Queen of Mewni.

* * *

After becoming Mewni's Champion, and getting a quick bite to eat of something called 'Royal Corn' with butter (which tasted alright), Marco was given a room right next to Star, at his request, because it would keep him close if she needed anything.

Solaria was about to object to having him so close to her youngest daughter, but Alphonse stopped her from doing so, only giving Marco a smile before dragging his struggling wife away to do who knows what. He gestured for his daughters to follow him but met reluctance from Star, who didn't want to leave Marco's side.

After Eclipsa and Moon pried Star from Marco's now shirt-covered chest, the three princesses disappeared through the same golden doors that their parents had gone through. Skywynne decided to take him to his room since he obviously didn't know his way around the castle. The two began to walk through the lavish castle halls littered with portraits of people Marco assumed to be related to the royal family.

As he was looking at the portraits, his eyes landed on a specific one causing him to stop in his tracks.

It was a portrait of a younger Queen of Mewni, "Skywynne Lavender Butterfly (14)," with her mother, "Lyric Butterfly." The young girl had a bored regal look that was the complete opposite of how Skywynne's happy expression was now.

Marco studied the picture for a few more seconds until he looked at the one next to it. The difference between the two was like night and day. A slightly older looking Skywynne was smiling and wasn't with her mother this time, but with a girl that Marco recognized after the initial shock of seeing her subsided.

It was his mother, "Angelica 'Angie' Diaz (15)."

Angie still had her puffy, auburn waist-length hair tied back in a ponytail with a pink tie, a bang over her right eye, and large green eyes. She was clad in an ebony battle dress similar to Moon's except it was bulkier. She had her helmet underneath her arm, while the other arm was around Skywynne's shoulder, and a familiar dagger sheathed at her waist. He couldn't help but smile at how happy his mother looked.

"I took over the throne when I was seventeen after my mother decided to retire from being a Queen… but I think she just didn't want to deal with the stress of the kingdom anymore. [Looks at her portrait with Angie] As much as I like to think of myself as intelligent and diplomatic, I needed help doing my duties so I came up with a spell to summon someone that would be able to. [Smiles] Your mother was the one to be called up for the challenge, but there was a _slight_ problem."

Skywynne chuckled and looked at Marco, "She was _twelve_ and I was _twenty-five_ , I think, when I summoned her. So you can imagine the confusion your mother had when I tried to explain to her why she was sucked out of her world and placed into mine… She seemed awfully accepting of her situation, though, and it wasn't until a couple of years of knowing her did I find out why… Has she told you about her childhood?"

Marco ran a hand through his hair and nodded sadly, "Yeah, she told me. I knew something was up because she never talked about her parents or my dad so… when she told me, it wasn't surprising. After she finished crying in my arms, I told her that I wouldn't leave her, **ever** , and I will do _anything_ to make sure of that." he said with a strong conviction, making Skywynne smile.

"Loyalty can be a double-edged sword, Marco. Anyway, back to the history lesson. (Ahem) I already had the concept of Mewni's Champion in mind since I didn't want anyone down my family line to be alone with the burden of running the Kingdom- I know it's selfish but it was for the good of my family. However, I couldn't just present a twelve-year-old as a Champion to the nobles or commoners because it was risky business, being a new Queen and all. So I kept your mother's identity a secret for two years, having her help with paperwork once I taught her how to read Mewni's language and run a few errands around the castle."

Skywynne chuckled and sighed, "Angie was not very fond of doing paperwork, let me tell you. Once the two years were up, I had her train with Glossaryck- who I'm sure you'll meet sometime soon- for a year on anything battle oriented such as battle strategies, weaponry, survival, magic, etc. She didn't need much help with learning how to fight because, well, you know why. Her "martial arts" certainly surprised Rhombulus. [Chuckles and sighs] Good times… Anywho, after that was done and out of the way, I introduced her first to the Magic High Commission as my-Mewni's Champion, which they surprisingly agreed to which _rarely_ ever happens, trust me. After that hurdle, I called a meeting and introduced her to the nobles and commoners... It did _**not**_ go well."  
Skywynne pinched the bridge of her nose, and Marco could guess where this was going, "Your mother had the _brilliant_ _idea_ , just like _you_ , to fall for King Spiderbite's negative comments. She tried to _strangle_ _him_ at one point and needed to be held back by _twelve_ Mewman Knights, one which got punched through a wall… poor Bob… I had to give the Spiderbite Kingdom a large piece of land to 'persuade' _him_ to reconsider. As for the commoners, they fell in _love_ with your mother because she had stood up to a noble and had standing relations with most of them due to the errands I made her do. I gave her that [points] nice looking armor she's wearing as both a congratulations gift and punishment for her actions. [Sinister smile] It's bulky for a reason."

Marco gulped audibly, causing the former Queen to laugh. She gestured for him to follow her and they both continued their walk over to Marco's new room.

"Besides the many problems she caused, Angie was a huge help and I'm glad I met someone like her. I'm sure, no, _I know_ you're going to be very helpful to my family, especially to Star." Skywynne said with a warm smile.

Marco returned the gesture, but then turned into a contemplative look, "So, _why_ am I looking after Star instead of one of her sisters?"

They walked in silence for a few minutes, until it was broken by a sigh.

"Because she will be the one to become Mewni's next Queen."

"But she's the youngest, wouldn't it first go to one of her other sisters?"

Skywynne chuckled sadly at this, "All three of them are seventeen, Marco. They were born seconds apart so the oldest is Eclipsa, the one wearing all the purple, then Moon, and last is Star."

"Wha- But they look so _different_."

"[Chuckles] One thing you should know about the Butterfly family is that the women in it aren't held down by _logic_ , especially when it comes to… _nature_."

"O-Okay?... So what's the deal with Star and your failed candidates before me?"

"... It's not my place to tell you about Star. If you want to know then I suggest you talk to her about it. As for the candidates… like I've said before, I wanted to keep you and your mother away from Mewni and my poor granddaughter paid for my selfishness… The candidates looked good on paper and during the interviews but I forgot to take into account Star's feelings. _Every single candidate_ couldn't handle Star's... _behavior_. [Pats him on the back] But I'm sure you will be able to so don't worry." Marco gave her a confused look, now feeling a little uncertain about the situation he found himself in. "I delayed the inevitable because of what your mother's been through and what happened with your father. The contract-"

"What happened with my father," Marco asked suddenly.

"U-Ummm… ' _Dammit Angie, why didn't you tell your son about this?!'_ W-Well, your mother loved your father very much. They met when she was sixteen, during one of her errands, and they hit it off. [Smiles sadly] She wouldn't shut up about him those first weeks and even asked for my advice on _dating_. Yeah, your mother was lovestruck alright. Anyway, I'll spare the juicy details for your mother to tell about their time together, because I have no clue what they did and I'm _sure_ you know how you came to be or do you need the talk?" she asked with a cheeky smile.

Marco groaned and shook his head, "No, I had the _talk_ already… Thanks. [Clears throat] So when my mama was here, she was mostly your errand girl?"

Skywynne busted out laughing at this. She couldn't help it because it was _so_ ridiculous. She noticed Marco giving her a confused look and quickly composed herself. "(Ahem) No, Angie was not my errand girl. She was _much more_ than that. Do you honestly think I gave your mother a magic-infused dagger to run errands? [Shakes her head] Angie would do a lot of… _messy_ _work_ when she was here, mostly spying on monsters and whatnot. It was a full-time job."

Marco eyed Skywynne questioningly before smiling, "Good."

Skywynne gave raised an eyebrow as to what he meant by that, but shrugged it off, deciding to bring it up some other time if she remembered.

Then she remembered something else and frowned, "I'm sorry about the extended time, Marco. I'll try to talk with my daughter about you possibly calling your mother at least once a week to compensate for it."

Marco instantly grew a smile on his face and nodded, his brain missing how something like that would even be possible due to being in _different dimensions_.

' _I don't think our home phone is strong enough to do_ ** _long distance_** _calls._ '

After walking for a few more minutes in a comfortable silence and several flights of stairs later, Marco and Skywynne had arrived at the room he would be staying during his time in Menwi.

"Well, here we are."

She opened the door to the room and gestured for Marco to walk in and _boy_ was it a sight.

There was nothing.

It was empty.

The only noticeable thing about it was made of marble and a large window that had a small balcony that seemed to overlook the town below and part of the enormous lake surrounding the Kingdom. There also appeared to be a door to his left that he assumed to be the bathroom.

Marco gave Skywynne a 'really' look and she rolled her eyes.

'Well, what did you expect? You requested this room in such short notice so there's nothing in it. I was going to have you stay up in the tower since it's where your mother stayed and has most of her furniture. [Looks around the empty room] Would you like me to move all of her belongings to your room?" she asked.

Marco placed his duffel bag on the ground and walked towards the marble wall that held the window, placing his hand on it. He tapped it twice and smiled, "Naw, it's okay. All I'll need is a comfortable bed, a chair, storage drawers, and the Mewman alphabet."

"Umm, okay? Anything else?"

Marco looked at her over his shoulder and grinned, "Tell Star to come to my room when she's not busy. I'll need to go over a few things with her and [walks over to the duffel bag and pulls out a deck of cards] get to know each other better in the process."

' _Hopefully Janna isn't planning on using her special deck of cards anytime soon_.'

* * *

The Ordonia residence looked like the typical two-story home that was sprinkled all over Echo Creek. The only unique aspect about it was that it was made of wood, like a lodge, for some reason. It definitely looked cozy during the night, like it did now.

The home was empty, for the most part, except for the sounds of banging coming from upstairs.

"Come on, Janna, open the door!" yelled Jackie as she banged on the door, "Let's talk about this!"

"GO AWAY!" yelled the Filipino girl.

Jackie's eye twitched and held back the anger filled screamed she so desperately wanted to let out. ' _Keep it together, Jackie. Remember that Janna's heartbroken and needs a friend_.'

She took a deep breath and exhaled, knocking on the door softly, "Janna, I know you're hurt but you have to look at it from Marco's perspective. His _mom_ was in possible danger and you know how much of a _mama's_ boy he is. I'm not defending how he handled the situation, because it was shallow, but I think-no- _I know_ there's a misunderstanding on your part. So, please Janna, open up…"

At first, there was nothing but silence throughout the residence, but then Jackie heard the sound of shuffling and footsteps from the other side of the door. The sound of a lock being unlocked soon followed.

Jackie waited a few seconds and then opened the door, stepping into her best friend's room. The room itself had not changed, unlike Janna during her crazy years. It had the same black-messy paint job the three of them did when they were in middle school, as well as highlighted small dots that were _supposed_ to represent stars in the night sky. The walls had posters of the macabre and other occult stuff, but what stood out from the dark aesthetic was a framed photo of the three of them hugging and smiling at the park not far from where they were. Marco, being his shy younger self, was sandwiched between the girls.

' _He was so adorable back then…_ _If only he stopped being an idiot when it came to girls feelings._ '

Jackie shifted her attention to her quiet friend, who was covered from head to toe in blankets and sighed. "Janna, come on out. Let's talk."

"There's not much _to_ talk about. He made his feelings _crystal_ clear." Janna replied with a cold but hurt tone from under her covers.

"No, Janna, he **didn't**. [Sits on the foot of her bed] He's just an idiot who gets tunnel vision when he sets his mind on something. We've known him since forever, so you should _know_ that by now."

"That doesn't excuse his _doucheness_."

Jackie shook her head, seeing how her 'try to make Marco seem like his idiot self so he wasn't thinking' approach wasn't working, so she decided to go a different direction.

"Janna," she placed her hand on the outline of her leg covered by the blanket, "why did you confess your feelings to Marco today of all days, especially while _that_ crazy magical nonsense was going down?"

Janna visibly stiffened, notifying Jackie that she was going down the right path of questioning.

"Because I wanted to."

"That's the _dumbest_ _fucking_ reason you can think of, so why did you _really_ do it?"

"I told you, it's because-"

"Cut the crap, Janna! You _knew_ that was the worst possible _fucking_ _time_ to confess to him. Anyone with a microscopic sense of _logic_ would know that!... Now, tell me. WHY. DID. YOU. CONFESS." Jackie angrily stated.

It went silent once again but was quickly broken by the sounds of sobbing.

' _Crap. Maybe I pushed her too much._ '

"I'm sorry Janna, I didn't mean to make you-"

Suddenly, the blankets exploded off of Janna, revealing her tear stained face. "I did it because I was **_scared_** , okay?! I panicked! I-I didn't know what to do so I just… said it." she whispered at the end.

Janna hugged her knees closer to her chest and sobbed quietly. Jackie looked on at her friend with a sad smile, sensing her sadness and now understanding her actions. She moved up the bed and sat next to Janna, putting her arm around her friend's shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. I have a feeling Marco will explain why he said no to you… Trust me when I say this, Janna, Marco loves you back."

Janna slowly rose her head from the protective space between her knees and looked into Jackie's eyes. She smiled but then frowned, "I'm not just sad about him saying no to me, Jackie. I'm afraid that he will _change_ during his time in Mewni and may not come back as the same Marco I fell in love with." she declared with crestfallen eyes.

Jackie began to rub Janna's back reassuringly, "Marco isn't going change much, if at all, Janna. He's basically going to war but I'm positive that he will continue to be the Marco we've known all along so don't think like that, Janna 'Banana'."

Janna snorted and held back her laugh at her childhood nickname. Marco had come up with it while they were giving each other nicknames back in middle school, and she loved it.

Not bananas, the nickname.

Janna rolled her puffy eyes and smirked, "Fine, I'll stop, 'Tacky' Jackie."

Jackie frowned and punched Janna on her shoulder, soon jumping off her bed and heading towards the door.

"You seem fine now… bitch." Jackie said with a smirk.

"OWWW, Jackie! Dumb blonde, you know I bruise easily! [Rubs shoulder] Fuck!"

"Wow, such lady-like language."

The familiar voice caused both girls to freeze and turn towards it. By the door was none other than Angie Diaz, who was looking at both girls with her signature smile.

"H-Hey, Ms. Diaz, w-what are you doing here?" asked Jackie.

"Well, I cam to check up on Janna and return this," Angie pulled out a necklace from her pants pocket and showed it to the girls, "or should I hold it for my son to deal with?"

Janna shot out of her bed and snatched the necklace out of her hands, causing Angie to smile and shake her head.

"T-Thanks, Ms. D, I'm sorry for my rude beha-"

"Don't worry about it, Janna. I know Marco can be a little... _clumsy_ when it comes to you. Anyways, Jackie is right, Janna. I assure you that my son isn't going to change for the worse because of _you_ , but you didn't hear that from me." Angie said with a smile while putting her forefinger up to her lips and winking.

Janna's eyes went wide at hearing that and turned to Jackie for confirmation that she wasn't hearing things. Jackie grinned at her and nodded, mouthing the words "I told you so."

"A-Are you serious, Ms. D? Marco loves m-"

"Janna, that's not for me to say." Angie grinned.

Janna was smiling from ear to ear, fist pumping in the air yelling "YES." She was allowed to continue her joy-filled dance for a couple more minutes until Jackie had to stop her after it got annoying.

"I also came here to ask if you wanted to see my son, but I already know the answer to that so here." Angie tossed a small round object at Janna, who almost fumbled it since she wasn't expecting to catch something in that moment. "That's a portable mirror phone and are _very **expensive**_ so, please, take care of it. [Notices Janna's confused look when she opened it] It's a phone, trust me. Anyway, Marco will call that phone but I don't know when so keep it near you at all times."

Angie turned around and was about to leave the room when Janna called out to her, 'WAIT! Why are you doing this for me? I thought you didn't like me?"

Angie shook her head and smiled, "Oh Janna, it's not that I don't _like_ _you_ , it's your troublemaking ways and reluctance to tell the person you love how you feel that frustrates me. You remind me of a younger me... which is why I'm going to give you some advice: If you love someone, make sure they know about it and keep reminding them of it. Oh, and the next time you sneak into my son's room, make sure the house is **empty**." she said with fake anger and a smile.

Angie turned around to leave but stopped half-way through the doorway, "Oh, before I forget, would you like to join me on my runs, Janna?"

Janna looked at Angie with a confused looked, causing her to chuckle.

"I'm asking because I know my son likes to be active, but I'm sure you already know that huh Janna?" Angie said with a smirk, causing the Filipino girl to blush from embarrassment. "It'll help you keep up with him after he tries to run away after you see him with a girl linked to his arm after he returns."

This got Janna's immediate attention, "What do you mean by **_that_** **,** Ms. Diaz?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that he is going to be spending _a lot_ of time together with a beautiful girl, that puts models here on Earth to shame, but I'm sure you have nothing to worry about," Angie said with a smile.

"Nonono, Marco wouldn't-"

"You're right. I'm only teasing, Janna, but it never hurts to surprise those you love, right?"

Janna looked down at herself and, for the first time in a long time, began to doubt her body. Sure, she had a nice lean figure and _sizeable_ _goods_ on both the front and back departments, at least that's what Jackie told her last weekend when they went to the mall. She hadn't noticed Marco stare at her body, like, _ever_ but she put that down as him being his usual gentleman self.

Janna had even tried to _tease_ him but never went through with it since she was scared on how he would react. Now that she knew that he liked (maybe not love yet) then maybe she could up her game?

Would starting out with making her body eye candy help her?

Janna was deep in thought for a few seconds, which worried Jackie.

"Janna, being healthy is good but don't listen to Ms. Diaz. Marco fell in love with _you_ , not your body so don't think bad about yourself." Jackie said while shooting a small glare at Angie, who was smiling.

Janna, still deep in thought, smiled.

"Marco does like me for me... he said so himself," she whispered to herself. Janna looked at Angie dead in her eyes and smirked, "Your son _likes_ the way I am, Ms. Diaz, BUT it wouldn't hurt to give Marco something to drool over."

Angie frowned, eye twitching, "So is that a yes on joining me?"

Janna, still keeping her smirk, nodded.

"Alright. [Tuns to face Jackie] You're welcomed to join us Jackie if you'd like."

The blonde looked at her friend and nodded. ' _I better watch over her. Who knows what Marco's mom has in store for her?_ '- "Sure, I'd love to join, Ms. D."

Angie grinned, "Good. We'll meet at my house at 7 AM sharp. And Janna, I hope you're prepared. I tend to [grins widely] go _overboard_ with the things I do. Bring work-out clothes too."

Jackie, unlike Janna, had picked up on her words and began to worry for her. She knew that Janna wasn't an unfit person, but tended to dislike things that made her sweat. Also, running wasn't her cup of tea.

Both girls nodded and Angie soon left the room afterward. Janna gave Jackie a look that screamed victory, which earned a sigh from her. "Why are you giving me that look, Janna?"

"[Shrugs and plops down on her bed] I don't know, I guess it's because things are getting _interesting_. Plus, Marco likes me more than just a friend, Jackie! I can't help but feel happy right now!" she exclaimed.

Jackie smiled at her friend but knew better than to let herself get caught up in the moment. ' _Let's hope your happiness lasts, Janna... Hopefully you didn't just jinx yourself.'_

* * *

 **I was going to end it there but, since I missed my new years eve deadline for this, I'll add extended it a bit more.**

A few soft knocks coming from the door brought Marco out of his meditation. He would have missed them if he wasn't expecting company, but he was.

Marco got off his new but _very_ comfortable bed- the sheets were made of the finest silk!- and made his way over to the wooden door. He opened it and came face to face with a certain blonde princess.

"Hey, Star," He waved her inside with a smile, "come on in."

Star had her hands behind her back and gave him a nervous smile as she walked in, not giving her back to him.

Marco followed her, wondering about her odd behavior, but dismissed it from his mind. "Sorry for taking you away from your family [closes the door and goes to sit on chair], but there are a few things I want us to talk about. You could sit on my bed Star. It's more comfortable than this chair."

Star nodded and sat down, still keeping her hands behind her back.

"Okay?..." Marco reached under his chair and dragged out his duffel bag, a smile growing on his face. He opened it and pulled out a piece of paper with a pencil, handing it to Star. She looked at the paper then at him with confusion. Marco pulled out a clipboard and a pen, clicking it open.

Lastly, he pulled out a pair of fake glasses and put them on.

"Okay, Star, we're going to play a little game to get to know each other which I like to call 'Psychology.' The rules are very simple: I ask _you_ a question, then you ask _me_ a question. If you don't feel comfortable with answering the question or don't know how to answer it then you can just say "pass." However, I suggest that you don't "pass" a question because if you answer it truthfully then _I_ will owe you _one_ _gift_. As for me, I'll _always_ answer truthfully... Oh, [pulls out a deck of cards from his pocket] another thing, after each one of our sessions I will reward you with one random card out of my _40_ card deck."

Marco glanced down at the deck of cards in his hands, shuffled them, and smiled.

"If you collect the King, Queen, Jacks- the three can be of any kind- and the Ace of Spades, then you can ask me for anything you want. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it doesn't harm you or anyone else. [Hands her a random card] Don't lose them because I don't have replacements on me." he said with a smile.

"Would you like to play?"

Star nodded slowly, took the card gingerly with one hand, and looked at it.

Her eyes grew wide and slowly turned it around to show Marco.

"The Queen of Hearts, it seems you're on your way Star. [Clicks the pen open] I'll keep track of both of our questions, while you keep track of how you feel throughout the sessions, okay? [She nods] Alright, ladies first."

Star glanced down at the card in her pale hand and studied it. ' _I-It's… hideous,_ ' she thought with a sad frown.

"S-So, I can ask anything?"

"Anything you want, Star. I'll be an open book. This is about you, not me, so don't worry about how I feel. Just ask away."

Star looked into Marco's soft chocolate eyes and began to tear up. His eyes were just like the ones she had seen in her dreams, the only place she felt happiness since the _incident_. In her dreams, she didn't have to fake a smile, emotions, or _anything_ because there was nothing in them that was… _fake_ to her.

The real world was fake, and cruel and unforgiving and hateful and dark and scary and terrible and _so much_ _ **more**_ … it lacked… warmth. It lacked…

Love.

"M-Marco… c-can y-ou he-help me f-feel… [shows her other hand] l-love again?" she said in such a _broken_ way that he was reminded of a certain ginger... Wait...

Is that blood on her wrists?

Marco shot up from his chair and made his way over to a crying Star. He threw his stuff on his bed and sat next to her. After a few seconds of stillness, stopping the bleeding with a special ointment that never left this side, and Star's small sobs being the only sound in the room, he hugged her tightly.

Star sunk into his embrace, burying her tear stained face and blonde hair onto his chest.

"Shhhh, it'll be okay _Estrella_. I'm here for you… I'm here for you and will help in any way that I can but first [pulls her slightly to look into her puffy eyes] I'm going to need to _know_ the problem. I need to know what is causing you pain, Star... We'll continue our game some other time." Marco said with a caring smile that warmed her core.

"Now, [stands up] what's the problem?" Marco said as he took out a roll of gauze from his duffel bag.

* * *

 **A/N** **: Well, hopefully, that was worth the wait. Sorry for the long 'shout-outs' lol but if you comment on my story then I'm going to reply. I feel like I'm ignoring you guys and gals if I don't lol. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, thanks for all the support, and onto the next one!**

 **But, the update will be for my second story then my first one… Sorry, but I can't neglect them! Those won't take as long to dish out since they'll be the standard length of fewer than 7000 words, unlike this one. All I need is time… Until next time! Peaceee!**


	3. Their Past Pt 1

**A/N** **: Seeeee, I didn't take as long to update this time, surprisingly. This chapter will be a little short compared to the others but I think it turned out fine. Oh, and thanks for all the support and feedback! I love the feedback! Anyway, here it is, enjoy!**

 **Rumiel-The Awakened One** : That's the point lol, for confusion. AS for Starco stuff, there will be teases since it's funny.

 **JudgeDreddSA** : Thanks for the feedback first off. As for Marco, well, he has several tricks up his sleeve. Janna and Star will meet, I just don't know when or how yet, but I do have vague ideas on it.

 **brody Putnum** : I'm glad you like my story! And happy late new years to you.

 **Gamelover41592** : Thanks for the compliment and, yeah, there will be more heavy material to come but also happy ones too.

 **PauloPT90** : Glad you enjoyed it and I'm happy that you found Star and Marco natural. It's a bit difficult to do when it's an AU but doable. I also enjoy writing out Marco's dialogue since sarcasm isn't one of his canon characteristics. Starco or Janco? Hmmm, it'll be clear what way Marco decides in the later chapters but for now, it'll be up for debate lol, sorry for not giving you the Starco you're craving. I will see what I can do to make it interesting though. Also, thanks for liking my other stories, it means a lot (:

 **allen Vth** : Glad to hear from you again! Marco's strength is… interesting lol. It's hard to explain without giving things away, sorry. As for the other princesses, they will be given their respective chapters so don't you worry lol. The title is more personal, as it will be revealed throughout the chapters. The thing you said about SKywynne and Solaria… lol, you'll see. It'll be entertaining if anything.

 **jarod237** : Thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you asked about Tom because he will be appearing in this story, so heads up.

 **Guest (absent?)** : Thanks! I'll keep up the work!

 **Guest (The Book of Eli)** : I'll continue to make Marco an entertaining character when it calls for it. I'm glad you like the story.

 **DJ Rodriguez** : Happy to hear from you again! Marco is somewhat laidback, as far as you know lol, but it's for good reason. And this chapter will put into perspective the competition Janna will have lol, if only a little.

 **thedarkone2002** : Thanks for the compliment! Glad you like my story.

 **JJmmmmmlol (1)** : Lol my story must have been doing something right if you spent a while reading it. I'm glad you're loving my story and lol Manna or Janco, it's the same thing to me, but Manna sounds better so I'll use that now for reference.

 **JJmmmmmlol (2)** : Once again, I'm happy you're enjoying this story so much (: That's what I'm aiming at with my writing. I can also see you love Janna (Manna) lol. The terms that Marco wants to talk about with the Queen about will be in the next chapter, not this one so hang in there lol.

 **Guest** : Thanks and I'm glad you're finding my story enjoyable! And I love Ms. Diaz character too! You'll see more of it so enjoy!

 **Disclaimer** **:** _ **I do not claim the right to Star vs. the Forces of Evil or any of the characters in the show. They belong to Disney and the show's creator, Daron Nefcy. I do, however, claim the right to the plot as well as any original characters that may appear in this fic. - Sky**_

* * *

Skywynne's room was in a lack of better terms… messy… and dusty beyond recognition. The once vibrant room was now covered in spider webs and dust bunnies, causing her to frown at the depressing scene before her. She walked past the littered books and clutter on the ground and stopped in front of a covered object that hung above the empty fireplace. She sighed and gave the hidden object a sad smile.

Skywynne turned away from it and suddenly came face to face with her old mentor, almost scaring the life out of her.

"Gahhh! Glossaryck! You almost gave me a heart attack! [Takes a deep breath] What are you even doing here? I thought I told you to wait in Angie's room." Skywynne stated sternly, trying to calm her racing heart.

The floating individual sighed and shook his head, "I was waiting there but something told me that you were going to be here so I came and here you are. [Looks at covered object] I see you still have that portrait covered up. Why is that?"

Skywynne released an exasperated sigh and clapped her hands twice, causing the lights in the room to come back to life from their long slumber. She walked away and began to pick up some books off the ground, "Come on, Gloss, help me clean up… This place has seen better days… [Ahem] So, what did the MHC think about Marco? Were they surprised?!" she asked with a grin, doing a complete 180 on her previous demeanor.

Glossaryck raised an eyebrow at her behavior and turned back to continue dusting off a bookshelf with his beard, "They were certainly impressed, especially… Hekapoo."

Skywynne stopped cleaning for a couple of seconds, then resumed the task. "[Turns to face Glossaryck] That's… strange… but somewhat understandable. She was very good friends with Angie so seeing her son after Angie made _that_ joke to her must have brought back memories or something."

"What jo- Ohhhhh, I see." The magical being chuckled and snapped his fingers, causing the entire room to return to its former-unmessy glory, much to Skywynne's irritation.

She liked to clean _without_ magic.

She placed the books on a nearby coffee table (a gift from Angie) and sat on a lavish chair that was next to her. Glossaryck snapped his fingers again and sat on a similar chair that appeared out of nowhere. "Angie's sense of humor is usually about causing others embarrassment… What a strange woman she is… But, promising Hekapoo her son as a fiance was obviously a joke. Maybe our temperamental-fiery-demon friend thinks she _wasn't_ joking," he said with a grin.

Skywynne rolled her eyes but smiled regardless. She knew that Hekapoo tended to take things for face value, which was why Angie loved to mess with her. Apparently, the demoness never learned her lesson. "Yeah, I better clear that misunderstanding up before it turns into something _troubling_." She took a deep breath and released a heavy sigh, sinking more into her chairs soft cushion.

Both she and Glossaryck said nothing, allowing the peaceful silence to relax them.

"Marco really does remind me of her."

The former Queen tilted her head to look at her old friend and smiled, "He certainly does… but Marco seems to be more _aware_ of his surroundings and actions, unlike his mother." she finished with a smile, closing her eyes to remember the good old days.

"Well, he probably got that from his father. Rafael was kind and the voice of reason of the two," commented Glossaryck, forcing Skywynne out of memory lane. "[Scoffs] Rafael was the reason Angie didn't want to stay on Mewni anymore."

She stood up angrily and faced Glossaryck, "Marco being raised _here_ would have been _**fine**_ , but noooo. It was too ' _dangerous_ ' and ' _unfit_ ' to raise him here. [Shakes her head in slight annoyance] He could have been friends with my granddaughters! *Psh* Marco would probably be _**engaged**_ to one of them by now… Stupid Rafael." she said with a scowl.

Glossaryck shook his head and got off his seat, not feeling like resting anymore. " _Wow_ , I would have never foreseen _you_ of all people to say that about Rafael. The poor man was basically **murdered** in front of his _wife_ and you're acting like a spoiled child because she didn't want to stay here anymore with _you_?! [Shakes his head] If Angie heard what you said about him she would cut all ties with you and take Marco away from here by _force_ if she had too so I suggest you keep your childish jealousy and bitterness in **check**."

Glossaryck floated over to and came face to face with Skywynne, looking at her dead in the eyes. "I know you've seen how Marco has a positive effect on Star and may very well change this kingdom for the better by helping her, remember that. I, for one, plan on helping him in any way that I can. It's the _least_ I can do for Angie."

Skwynne held her position but quickly gave it up. "[Sighs] You're right, Gloss. It's not Rafael's fault. [Scoffs] What was I thinking? Blaming a dead man? Wow… It must be the build-up of stress from the candidate fiasco. I'm sorry, Gloss... I should know better." the former Queen said with guilt and regret in her voice.

"Hey, chin up kiddo. Let's just focus on making sure that nothing bad happens to Mewni or our new guest in the meantime... Oh, I've been meaning to ask, why are you moving back into your old room? I assume that's why you were cleaning it right? [She nods] But why would you do that if you have your own house in another dimension, far from the drama?" questioned the small blue man.

Skywynne chuckled, "Well, I thought it would be a good idea to be closer so I could be of help if Marco, Star, or anyone needs it. I also promised Angie to look after her son so being close by seems like a very good idea in order to keep an eye on him and Star."

Glossaryck smiled and shook his head at her. The magical being floated over to the door and was about to leave the room when he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "I know what you're up to, Skywynne, and let me give you some sage advice: The boy already has his heart set on someone so, whatever you do, _do not_ force things. You, more than anyone, should know that forcing love usually _always_ ends poorly… [smiles] BUT it never hurts to try." After he said those words, he smirked and left, leaving Skywynne alone in her room.

She scoffed and smiled at her old mentor's words, "I'm not _forcing_ anything... just _nudging_ in the right direction to hopefully get the result my family and this kingdom needs. Besides, _**no one**_ has ever been able to resist a Butterfly's charm," Skywynne said with a mischievous grin while she tapped her chin in contemplation as she too made her way out of her room.

She had to talk to her daughter about getting Marco those phone priveledges if she wanted him to be more cooperative.

* * *

The moon was high in the sky, radiating all its cosmic glow over Mewni. The night was beautiful in this dimension, much more than on Earth. You could actually see _everything_! Every twinkling star, planet, and parts of galaxies but the most beautiful part of the celestial collection were the moons, three to be exact. Their glow snuck into every window in the land, enveloping those who were asleep with its soft-warm radiance, just like it was doing to Star right now.

Marco stared, from his seat, at the sleeping girl on his bed and couldn't help but furrow his brow at what Star had told him earlier in the day. He couldn't believe that such a peaceful looking girl had gone through _so much_.

It was heartbreaking.

Star had told him about the _incident_ that occurred to her when she was just a little six-year-old girl… She and her friend, a little peasant girl from town, were playing out in the castle's gardens without a care in the world when, suddenly, a couple of monsters who had somehow snuck into the castle ambushed them. Star was the first to react, dragging the girl with her towards the door, but the monsters were too fast.

They managed to take the girl from Star's grip, after putting up a valiant effort in trying to save her friend. The other monster, a dog-cyclops hybrid, held her back as the other one picked up the struggling little girl and… just like that… snapped her neck.

Star's despair-filled screams bounced off every corner of the castle, thankfully alerting the guards. The oblivious monster holding Star smiled at her in a nightmarish way, causing her breathing to stop altogether. It slowly lifted the princess by her long golden hair and dangled the small terrified girl over its mouth, rows of jagged and decaying teeth ready to end her short life. However, before it could proceed in eating the princess, a magic blast hit it's tough exterior, startling it.

Both monsters turned around and paled at who it was.

It was none other than Mina Loveberry, the twelve-year-old prodigy who had single-handedly held back a raid of fifty golems all by _herself_ about a week ago. Before either could react to the powerhouse before them, Mina had closed the distance and had cut off both of their heads with her trusty saber in one fluid motion.

Little princess Star landed on the ground, coming face to face with the cold-lifeless eyes of her friend. She immediately saw the reflection of her terrified self in the unblinking glass-like eyes of the recently deceased and she didn't know how to feel in that moment, probably too shocked to react.

Mina gave the little royal a sad look before lifting her up and making a dash towards the barracks to inform her fellow knights about the possible threat of a monster attack on the castle. The last thing Star managed to see that day was the lifeless body of the little peasant girl laying on the grass, as the wind moved her long dark hair to cover the eyes.

Marco pinched the bridge of his nose at the mental images and groaned as he laid his head back against the chair. That's too much for _anyone_ to witness, _especially_ a child. Poor little Star was never the cheerful little girl she once was, he assumed, and couldn't blame her.

Her family had tried to help her but it was too late. The monsters had robbed her of her child-like innocence, which made Marco grip the armrests in anger at such a _**stupid**_ occurrence that should have _never_ happened.

 _Where the fuck was the security or knights when that happened?_

But that wasn't the only thing Star had to deal with.

According to Star, the candidates before him had rejected her due to her… _problems_. Star was sadly suffering from PTSD from that day in the garden, which caused her to have nightmares so vivid that she would accidentally attack the candidates (the closest person there) as she sleepwalked. Was she trying to defend herself or save the little girl? Marco didn't know and Star didn't say. She also didn't mention what she did to them, just that they rejected the position from the infirmary… as soon as they were able to move their jaws again.

Marco did _not_ like the sound of that but hid his uncertainty to avoid worrying Star.

She was also suffering from major depression and stress. The depression was due to being rejected for something she had no control over and because of how the nobility and the people of the kingdom treated and saw her.

The nobles treated her as if she were crazy and stayed away from her unless Queen Solaria was present, where they were forced to act as if they liked the princess (she didn't mention how they treated her sisters, which was odd). They also scoffed at the idea of her being Queen one day, which was messed up since they didn't know Star's troubles. It didn't help that Star appeared to have an inferiority complex, something Marco concluded at the end of their talk. Basically, she _believed_ that she was a _terrible_ choice for Queen or anything for that matter.

As for the citizens of Mewni, well, they thought Star was… _unstable_ (mentally) and some had even outright told the Queen to get her some help, which she didn't take to kindly of. Overall, people were judging her without actually knowing why she was acting the way she was, something Marco found to be a common theme that both Earth and Mewni shared.

Maybe it was a universal law to be assholes and assume things about people.

In regards to her stress, it was obvious. Star _did_ _ **not**_ want to become Queen, at all. She absolutely _loathed_ the idea but didn't want her other sisters to be stuck with the burden of being Queen so she decided to sacrifice herself so they could be free from the shackles that came with the throne, even if she thought so little about herself.

Marco removed his hand from his face and looked back at the sleeping Star, causing him to let out a sad sigh. Why? Because the things mentioned weren't what put the nail in the proverbial coffin of his heart. No, what truly caused him great worry about Star was what she had basically pleaded for him to help her with…

 _To make her feel love again_.

…

Except…

Marco had no fucking clue on how to do that.

But he was going to _try_. His mother had raised him to help those in need, no matter the situation, and he wasn't about to disappoint her or Star. But the problem was the _love_ part because there are different types of it. Marco shook his head, deciding to think of that later, and walked over to Star. He noticed her face was scrunched up and kept twitching, probably from a nightmare she was having. He placed his hand on her forehead gently and she seemed to calm down from the touch alone, which was odd to him but he didn't question it. If touching her forehead caused her even the slightest of relief from her _wonderful_ life and memories then he would gladly do it.

He wasn't overstepping any lines by doing it either.

' _I have to talk to Skywynne about a few things, as well as Solaria. I_ need _to arrange a way for me to be able to keep in touch with my_ actual _life, but how?... Wait, wasn't Skywynne going to talk to her daughter about that? Huh, maybe I'll let her deal with that, for now._ [Looks at Star] _I have a feeling I'm going to have my plate full in this crazy ass dimension_.' Marco thought with a slight chuckle… then his stomach decided to make itself known. ' _Guess I better find something to eat. There might be some beef jerky in my pack-_ '

He moved his hands from Star's forehead and her eyes shot open, intense blues, startling Marco. "O-Oh, h-hey Star. Sorry for waking you. I'll leave," he said with a nervous and embarrassed chuckle as he backed away, thinking his loud stomach had woken her up. But Star said nothing as she kept staring at him, which was awkward for Marco. He opened his mouth to say something else but, before he could utter one syllable, Star jumped out of the bed and screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs, rattling every fiber in his body.

"S-Star? W-What's wrong?! Did I do some-"

Marco, acting on instinct, barely managed to sidestep a magical blast of some kind, cracking the wall behind him into an intricate web-like pattern. "Star! What the fuck was that!?" The Earth teen was beyond confused right now and needed answers to figure out how to deal with whatever the hell was going on! He put up his hands in a defensive, but neutral, pose and tried to analyze the situation, this case being Star.

For one, Star's body language was tense and shaky. Her eyes were wide and glossy, probably on the verge of crying, but what really put him on edge were her fists. They were clenched and _glowing_ with a pink hue, almost like how radiation did in movies or cartoons.

One thing was for certain, though.

Yup.

Star was _clearly_ **terrified**... but of _what_?

"Stay away you monster! Don't get near us!" the scared princess yelled at Marco, which further confused the fuck out of him until she stepped a little into the moonlight and got a good look at her eyes. The pupils were kind of hazy, almost like if she wasn't fully _there_. He's seen that look several times before when he woke up Janna to take her back home before his mom could notice she was there. In those instances, it took him a few seconds to notice that she wasn't actually… awake...

 _ **FUCK.**_

* * *

"Dad sure likes to talk a lot," groaned out a tired feminine voice.

The door closed behind the two princesses as they made their way over to a bed with dark violet sheets, a color that the entire room seemed to share. Once there they sat on the silky fabric, the sisters pondered the day's events, specifically the ones involving their younger sister, Star.

Never had they seen their sister act with so much _emotion_ , which said a lot, since the incident in the garden many years ago. They tried to cheer her up by spending as much time as they could with her and did everything in their power to make her smile, but nothing seemed to work. The only times they saw her smile were brief, which involved her clutching the pendant on her chest as she gazed into nothing until she returned back to being melancholic. The last time that happened was a couple of years ago when they were having breakfast, before the slight happiness she showed vanished.

And now…

Now, some _stranger_ had made Star smile without actually doing _anything_ , while they had tried to do the same for years. "This is stupid…" Moon said with a sad frown as she looked at her feet. Eclipsa knew what her sister was feeling; jealousy. It was only fair for them to feel that way… or was it? The blue-silver haired princess groaned, snapping her older sister out of her thoughts, and faced each-other, deep blue meeting magenta.

"So, what do you think of him?"

Eclipsa hummed in a thinking manner, "Well, he seems capable enough to protect our sister if he can fight against Mina and not be a broken mess by the end of it. Also, Star seems to like him? So that's good, right?" she said with uncertainty.

"I think so? [Furrowed brow] I still don't understand how a _human_ could stand on equal ground with Mina, Mom's second in command!" exclaimed Moon with anger.

"[Sighs] Calm yourself, Moon. We both know of someone who is far stronger than Mina, probably as strong as _grandma_ , and she was a human too." Moon's eyes went wide when she realized what her sister was implying. The stories Grandma Skywynne had told them of Angie 'the Champion' Diaz, her best friend, appeared to be out of storybooks or fairy tales. As far as they knew, everything she said was…

Fictional.

The reality of someone like Angie existing was both scary and amazing at the same time, and they may be in the presence of her _only_ child.

"Y-You think that Marco is Angie's _**son**_?!"

Eclipsa picked up Moon's slightly scared tone and couldn't help but chuckle, "There's no need to be shaken up. Grandma did say that Marco was the first one on her list of candidates and that he was the son of a family friend which, giving his last name, means that he is indeed Angie's son. So there's nothing to worry about Moon… [Smirks] Marco isn't _cheating_ or anything. His strength is probably inherited for all we know."

Moon breathed in a sigh of relief until she picked up on what her sister was implying. "Hey! I never said he was cheating!"

"BUT you were _insinuating_ that he was since he held his own against Mina, your _secret crush_." she said with a wiggle of her brows, even dragging out the word 'crush' for effect. And she got the result she wanted. Moon's face was as red as a rose and Eclipsa couldn't help but laugh at her sister for being so easily flustered. "S-She's not my crush! I-I just happen to admire her a lot since she is what I hope to be one day, a knight!"

Eclipsa rolled her eyes and patted her sister's shoulder, "Oh I was only teasing, Moon. No need to get your britches in a twist. I also know how much you want to be a knight and will support you in whatever way that I can, no matter what mom says." she said with a smile that Moon returned. "Thanks, Eclipsa, I know I can always count on you… and Star if she ever decides to, you know, talk to us again."

Eclipsa sighed sadly and nodded, relating to what her sister was getting at. Nowadays, for the past few years, Star tended to be holed up in her cold room and wouldn't bother opening the door for anyone unless she had too or needed to go outside for something. Long gone were the days where Eclipsa would comb Star's hair as Moon talked about some knight related thing as they smiled, enjoying each others company.

It was heartbreaking for the two sisters, mostly Eclipsa since she felt responsible for how Star was, even if she wasn't in the kingdom when the incident happened due to some formal gathering her mother pushed her to go to.

But what truly worried Eclipsa was the sense of dread and icy atmosphere she felt when she stepped into her little sister's room.

It was almost suffocating.

Her thoughts then drifted to the teen who had recently become Mewni's Champion and the interactions he had with Star. She noticed that Marco was giving her sister all his attention and respect, even when everyone else in the throne room was being jerks to him. The smiling and words were all sincere and he treated her as an equal, something her sister didn't get from the nobles or anyone besides family. But what she noticed truly separated Marco from the candidates, nobles looking to kiss ass for self-gain, or anyone with ulterior motives, were his…

 _Eyes_.

Marco's eyes held _something_ she couldn't quite place or name. Behind those comforting brown eyes appeared to be pain, sadness, strength, uncertainty, and several other things, all rolled into each other but the one she had yet to see anyone have when they talked to Star is… understanding.

Marco showed to be understanding of her feelings and position. Him asking her if she was oka with him being her champion was a perfect example of that and, because of this, there was very little doubt in Eclipsa's mind that Marco was the one to help Star's condition.

She hoped anyway.

However, as mentioned before, his eyes held something _else_ too, but it appeared to be locked away for whatever reason. She would have to find out what it was and make sure it wasn't harmful to Star or Moon.

She was _very_ protective of her sisters after all.

Eclipsa, deciding to end her long sequence of silent thoughts, looked over at Moon and noticed that she was being looked at with confusion. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" asked a confused princess.

"It's just… you get this _look_ when you're deep in thought. Your nose scrunches up and you nibble on your lip or something. [Smiles] You also begin to tap your thigh hahaha!"

"I-I d-do not do that! S-Stop laughing! It's not funny!" The embarrassed look on Eclipsa's face only managed to add fuel to Moon's laughter, much to her irritation.

"O-Oh, yeah, well, you... were ogling Marco's body!" That accusation stopped Moon's laughter on a dime, causing her to get flustered and embarrassed, which in turn caused Eclipsa to shoot her a victory smirk. The younger sibling scowled at that, "Well at least _I_ wasn't _drooling_ at the mere sight of his abs or looking at him like he was a piece of _chocolate_! Seriously, Eclipsa, it looked like you wanted to _devour_ him." Moon said matter of factly, followed up by a giggle at seeing her sister's shocked-blushing face.

"Y-You… can't blame me for that," she whispered with a blush, "The possible suitors available to us don't come _close_ to Marco's looks. Compared to them, he almost seems like a deity! [Chuckles] I'm a little jealous that our little sister has him, basically, all to herself, don't you agree?"

Moon simply nodded, not really finding a reason to lie or disagree. "Haha yeah, maybe you can get him to buy you chocolate or something haha… Wait… aren't you basically engaged to Prince Shastacan?"

A deep scowl formed on Eclipsa's face at the mention of that royals name. She had never in her conscious years of life met someone so self-centered, spineless, pathetic, and the list could go on and _on_. "[Scoffs] Don't remind me. I honestly don't know why Mom wants me to marry him. He's _disgusting_ and I rather marry a monster than _him_." Eclipsa spat, surprising Moon with her display of hatred towards the stuck-up noble. Moon shared her sister's sentiments about him but it still surprised her. She also knew that Eclipsa understood why she was basically being handed over to the Spiderbite family, and no one liked that it was happening, _especially_ their own mother. But the kingdom would be stronger if they got married, uniting two kingdoms during a time of war was always a good thing for the majority, but it usually wasn't the same for the involved parties.

"Eclipsa… We both know why mom is trying to get you two together… the wellbeing of Mewni rests on the outcome of you two getting married or not." Moon said with a sad smile.

Eclipsa glanced to the side and scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief, as tears began to form on the corners of her watery eyes. "I know but… [sigh] I'll do what's best for the people. I just wish there was _another way_. [Looks at Moon] I **really** don't want to marry Shastacan, Moon…" she said in a crushed tone, and her mood was transferring over to her sister since she could see that her eyes were getting a little watery too.

A sudden knock from the door startled the two princesses from crying, and in walked their Grandma with a warm smile on her seemingly timeless face. Eclipsa rapidly wiped away her tears, as did Moon, before questions could be asked. "G-Grandma, what are-"

"Girlssss, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation-you really should make that door soundproof. Anywho, Eclipsa, my dear, I think I may have someone who could help you with your little... _problem_." Both girls looked at her with confusion and she couldn't help but chuckle, "I suggest you talk to Marco about it. Perhaps all you need is an _outside_ point of view and I'm sure he'll be happy to help but, just in case he says no, tell him I'm ordering him to help you." Skywynne said with a big smile.

"... Ummm, o-okay? I'll talk to him, I suppose."

"Great! Now, who's up for some late-night ice cream? You know what, you two don't have a say in the matter so come on. We might as well pick up Star and Marco on the way since I'm sure they want some. [Smirks] And I wouldn't want Marco to get any funny ideas about having a beautiful princess in a room... all to himself... with no one around..." she said plainly, trying to suppress a laugh at the sight of her granddaughters' concerned faces.

Gods did she love to mess with people… Angie was a bad influence on her.

Before either princess could respond to their grandmother's request, a blood-curdling scream followed up by an explosion shook the entire floor, the twelfth floor to be exact.

The one they were on.

Skywynne knew the sound of that explosion anywhere and so did the girls. In a blink of an eye, all three of them were running as fast as they could towards the sounds which didn't take very long since the room was all the way at the end of the long lavish hall. The three of them spotted a familiar pair of the royal family and they all met outside of Marco's room… or what was left of it.

"MOM, WHAT'S GOING ON?!" asked a jumpy Solaria.

"It's Star again! I think she attacked Marco during one of her sleepwalking episodes!" Skywynne replied back in a similar tone. Angie was going to _kill_ her if something happened to her 'baby' boy. The King, not wasting a second, jumped through the hole in the wall and searched for her daughter or Marco. He thankfully managed to find both of them safe and sound in the middle of the debris, but at an odd position, and he couldn't help but also notice that the Earth teen looked exhausted.

"Marco, what happened my boy?! Are you two alright?!" asked the worried King.

"Y-Yeah… Yeah, we're fine, your Majesty. [Phew] S-Star just… Star just got a little physical, that's all." he said in between breaths as he held a tight smile.

The rest of the royal family made their way into the room, that appeared to have had a tornado pass through it, but their attention quickly shifted to Marco and Star, who was kind of hugging on the ground littered with the room's things. The first to make a motion towards him was none other than Solaria and she did _not_ look happy. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY LITTLE GIRL?!"

Marco sightly flinched at the assault his ears had just been put through and turned to face the angry Queen. "First off, Owww. Second, _your daughter_ was the one who attacked _me_ so if **anyone** should be upset or ANGRY it's ME! [Sighs] Look, I'm just glad I managed to calm Star down before she hurt herself or anyone else around." he finished with a groan.

Everyone gave Marco a confused look as to why he didn't include himself into the mix. Alphonse noticed that his wife wasn't calming down as fast as he would have liked so he stepped in before she could say or accuse Marco of doing something else. "Sol, hun, calm down. Star is fine. I mean, look at her. She's practically _cuddling_ into his chest, and nothing else happened that would harm our daughter in _any_ way. **Right, Marco**?" the King said with a calm voice and smile, but it was fucking clear what he was trying to hint at.

' _Touch my daughter in a way I wouldn't approve of and you're_ _ **dead**_ _._ '

Marco understood the message loud and clear so he nodded as fast as his neck would allow, which Alphonse seemed to be pleased with.

"See, now let's go back to sleep- *but*- and let your mother handle this. We have several meetings to attend and I don't want to deal with a grumpy Queen in the morning who did not get her beauty sleep so come on." In an impressive display of strength, Alphonse managed to drag his struggling wife back to their room as she could do nothing but express how angry she was at being treated like a child.

No one commented about them once they left, except for Marco who mumbled something about the King having it "rough."

Once they disappeared out of sight at the end of the hall, Skywynne turned to Marco and Star. She could kind of guess how the events planned out from the state that Marco's room was in, but she had to be sure. "Marco, what happened here?"

Marco gave the princess in his arms a quick glance before turning to face Skywynne with a confused look. "I… don't know. Star was sleeping on my bed and I stayed to make sure she was okay," A mixed look of sadness and anger quickly flashed on his face before returning to normal, "She told me about her past… Anyway, I was about to head out to get a quick bite to eat when she woke up but didn't? It... was like she was _sleepwalking_ , then she started getting violent on me with, I think, magic? [Sigh] I'm lucky I managed to get a hold of her and put her to sleep before anything got out of hand." he said with a look of relief.

Skywynne and the girls gave each other quick worried glances before helping Marco with Star so he could get up off the ground. Eclipsa and Moon took their sleeping-drooling sister out of the destroyed room and decided to take her to the room they were in before the commotion began. Marco was about to follow after them when Skywynne stopped him from walking past her, earning a confused look from the earth-teen.

She gestured for him to stay quiet and waited for a few seconds so the girls wouldn't be within hearing distance. After those seconds, the time magic user tapped Marco's forehead and he slumped onto the floor but managed to catch himself in a kneeling position. He slowly raised his head to look at Skywynne and struggled to move any more than that, his body refusing to listen to him. It felt like lead was coursing through his body at how heavy it felt.

"W-What.. di-d you.. d-do?"

Skywynne bent forward a little to come face-to-face with Mewni's Champion and smiled at his struggling. "Nothing, just a little paralysis spell. It's no big deal really. Now, [grabs his chin] you're going to tell me how you managed to stop my grandaughter's attacks without so much as a _scratch_ on you and, depending on your answer, I won't-"

… Chuckling…

Skywynne stared at Marco with mixed emotions as to why he was chuckling, and then her eyes went wide when he began to stand up as if he wasn't just paralyzed mere moments ago. She took a step back and composed herself, a smile slowly forming on her face. "Well, would you look at that…"

Marco took a deep breath and exhaled, eyes never leaving her, "If you wanted to _talk_ , you could have just said so. [Pops kneck joint] Also, if you're going to try to paralyze me then you're going to have to knock me unconscious because that stuff isn't going to work on me, thanks to my mama." he said with a grin.

Skywynne shook her head and scoffed, "I wouldn't expect anything less from Angie, so I'm not that surprised. Come on, let's talk in my room for a bit before we go check up on Star."

Both of them walked out of the hole in the wall (which was quickly repaired by Skywynne as well as the entire room) and headed towards her room, which was on the other side of the castle so it was quite a long-silent walk.

Once inside, away from any prying eyes or ears, Skywynne cast a spell on the room for extra precaution so no one would bother or hear them.

"So what did you want to talk about," asked Marco as he stood in the middle of the room, eyeing the covered item hanging on the wall.

"Marco, listen carefully, (that got his attention) I want to make it clear that I am your friend here. What happened back in Star's room was me trying to be intimidating, and would never actually hurt you. I apologize for-"

"[Shrugs] Ehh, it's fine. I didn't feel like I was in any danger so don't worry about it. Besides, I know that you wouldn't do anything to give my mama a reason to think less of you. You're best friends after all, which leads me to what I wanted to talk to you about: Star's condition." he said in a serious tone.

"I was actually about to explain that to you. But first, I apologize for not informing you of her condition in detail beforehand, but I wanted to see if you were actually serious about looking after my granddaughter. As you can probably already deduce, any information about Star outside of the family is _very_ limited to the outside world, even the castle staff, _especially_ when it's about her… problems." Skywynne said with a sour expression.

"Hmm, I figured as such. [Sigh] So I'm going to tell you the truth about how I feel about this whole thing… Star has _a lot_ of issues and I don't know if I'll be able to solve them," Skywynne's expression fell at hearing those words, "BUT I'm going to _**try**_ to help her. I can't leave a girl like Star to suffer, especially for things out of her control... No promises though." he said with a smile as he shrugged.

Skywynne returned the smile, only wider, and quickly enveloped Marco in an embrace, surprising the teen, "Thank you, Marco, thank you! You don't know how much it means to me that you're willing to help Star after what you've seen and know about her. [Scoffs] The first candidate ran away screaming when he saw Star using magic to attack him, and the rest weren't that much different. It was all such a _pain..._ ," she said with a tear slowly gliding down her cheek.

Marco pulled away from the embrace slowly and wiped the tear away as he stood in front of her, "Hey, it'll be okay. I'll look after Star for as long as I'm here. [Chuckles] Her magic is kind of unnerving, though. However, I promise that will be there for Star... but I am going to need something in return."

She smiled and shook her head, already guessing what it might be (probably armor), "And what is it that you need?"

Marco smirked and tapped his head, "I'm going to need to learn... some _magic_."

Skywynne's mouth opens out of shock, accompanied by a look of utter disbelief.

She was not expecting that.

.

.

.

But she liked the idea and knew the perfect people for the job.

"Oh, and a phone."

* * *

 _*_ _ **A Week Later**_ _*_

A stray beam of sunlight managed to pass through the closed pitch black curtains of the room. The sounds of birds chirping a little past the dawn of a new day was almost calming if it weren't for the random barking of dogs in the neighborhood and honking from the occasional car. Other than that, everything was eerily silent throughout the home… until the alarm went off.

The person laying on the bed began to stir, groaning in the process as the alarm continued to assault their eardrums from under the pillow. The alarm was quickly disarmed and a head full of messy hair shot out from under the covers, followed by more groans.

"Dammit. This better be worth the trouble after it's all over," the person grumbled. "Marco better be all over me when he sees how much I've changed." It was true. Janna's physique had certainly improved and now had curves that rivaled Jackie's model like body. She could also do the splits now! So she was more flexible, something she _knew_ Marco would like. How those results happened in such a short amount of time, she had no idea... but it seemed Ms. Diaz knew what she was doing if these were the results. However, Janna wanted to see more results but hated the fact that she had to _work_ for them!

The sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs were ignored by the groggy girl until the door was opened, shortly followed up by the yanking of curtains.

The person hissed in an overdramatic display of pain as the warm sunlight touched her skin, causing the other individual to chuckle. "Oh come on, Janna. You would think after doing this for a week you would get a little used to this routine by now."

Janna looked with a half-opened eye at the person who had opened the curtains to her misery and scowled. "Jackie, **leave**."

"Sorry, I can't do that. In fact, I remember a certain love-sick girl telling me about a week ago to drag her out of bed if she was being difficult." Jackie said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah? Well, that same love-sick girl needs more sleep so you can go tell Ms. Diaz that I'm going to take today o-"

"Sadly, I can't allow that Janna," a honey-sweet voice interrupted, "You agreed to this and can't back out now." Both girls turned towards the voice and saw Angie in her usual workout attire (t-shirt and sweatpants) leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. The girls couldn't help but be impressed by how fit she looked despite her age. Angie then gestured to the bottom of the stairs with her head and told Janna she had five minutes to get ready before she left without her, which would be a bad decision on her part.

Jackie quickly patted Janna on th back before going down after Angie in her own workout attire (a workout top and shorts), leaving a grumpy Janna behind to get ready. This was basically the routine for the entire week of them doing this, so she didn't understand why Janna wouldn't just stop being so dramatic and get ready.

Janna got out of her bed, begrudgingly, and was visited by another person who looked like an older version of the Filipino girl. "Janna, don't forget to wear your sports-bra, sweetie. You don't want to accidentally hit yourself with them again-"

"MOM! GET OUT!" exclaimed a flustered Janna, as her mother ran down the stairs with a huge grin on her face, who got a high-five from Angie (a close friend) and laughter from Jackie.

After their hour-long run, the three found themselves back in the Diaz residence, Janna being the most tired-sweaty one out of the group. Angie soon walked into the living room with a tray of what she told the girls were "workout drinks." They tasted like "ass" as Janna had put it, followed up by Angie questioning her how she knew what that tasted like.

...

The conversation ended there.

Angie gave both of the girls their respective drinks and sat down on a chair across from the couch they were sitting on. "I'm surprised with how much you've improved Janna. The first day we went out you only lasted ten minutes, and we had to carry you back here." Angie said with a smile as she shakes her head. Jackie almost choked on her drink at the memory of that but managed to suppress her laughter, earning a tired glare from her friend.

Janna downed her drink and placed the glass on the table between them, followed up by an intentional burp that made Angie's face scrunch up. "Well, _mother-in-law_ , **thanks** for the compliment but I still don't understand why you're pushing me _so hard_. I get the cardio stuff, even if three miles a day and core exercises are a stretch for me, but why the self-defense lessons?"

"Yeah, Ms. D, what's up with that?" asked Jackie.

Angie took a deep breath and began to bite her lip nervously, "I just want you girls to able to defend yourselves... since my son isn't here to watch over you and I don't want you two to rely on him too much. [Smirks] I'm also teaching you two a fighting style that my son doesn't know about. A style that will surprise him once he sees it." she said with a smile.

Janna and Jackie gave each other confused looks as to the pause in Ms. Diaz's sentence about the watching over part.

"Why would you teach us something like that?" asked Janna as a sudden look of realization struck her, "Wait... what kind of fighting styles did you teach Marco?" Jackie, now wondering the same thing, looked to Angie for answers. They were both more curious about his fighting after the whole karate incident and also because he wouldn't like to talk about his training with them for some reason. The one in question mentally cursed herself for letting that information slip out since she was mostly focused on them not questioning their special training but seemed to be in a worse position by doing so.

"Umm, well... M-Marco knows about other styles of combat but only learned three because he wanted to focus more on those than the rest. One of the styles is passive to avoid hurting people, another is for the actual fighting, and the last one... he... didn't tell me what the last one was." Angie replied with a smidge of worry in her voice. She had taught her son the passive one and allowed him to learn whatever else he wanted on his own but when she asked what styled he learned, he told her that one was Karate and the other was... a secret.

That was the first, of many secrets, that he would keep from her and she knew about the fact that he kept to himself about those secrets. It was a little... heartbreaking to see her little man not confide in her but she ruled it out as him growing up and 'needing' space.

It still hurt though.

Jackie was the first to break the silence by clearing her throat, "I'm sure he has a good reason for not telling you Ms. Diaz. It is _Marco_ after all so I'm sure he didn't mean anything bad by it." she said in an attempt to comfort Angie's sad demeanor. Janna also voiced her opinion in an attempt to help her _possible_ future mother-in-law, she even called her "mother-in-law" again as an added bonus.

Angie smiled but rolled her eyes at the girls' attempt to make her feel better, but she appreciated it never the less. However, a quick frown formed on her face from being called _that_ **_again_** but it began to quickly fade. Angie decided to get a little even with her son's potential girlfriend so she reached into her back pocket, pulled out a picture, and showed the girls, who looked at it with confusion and some tinge of jealousy for several reasons. "This is another reason _why_ I'm being so hard on you, Janna. [Sighs] Do you _honestly think_ that my son wouldn't look at another girl or _woman's_ way? Or vice versa? [Scoffs] My son may be able to restrain himself but that doesn't apply to the other person. [Chuckles] A woman can be _extremely deadly_ when she wants something bad enough, trust me, I know, which is why knowing how to defend yourself is _very_ important."

Janna and Jackie were looking at the _woman_ in the picture because that's what she clearly was, next to a younger (and hot as hell according to the girls) Ms. Diaz and couldn't believe such a being existed. The woman looked to be a demon-vampire of some sorts with golden horns that had a flame in between them and adorable pointy fangs that were showing from her alluring smile. Her skin was milky-white, had yellow eyes with some orange, long silky-fiery hair with an obsidian crown on her head, and was wearing a yellow gown that left little to the imagination about her voluptuous curves that would make any guy salivate. Her prominent bust alone made Janna and Jackie self-conscious, nevermind how much beauty and sex-appeal she appeared to be radiating.

"Who is **_that_**?" asked a troubled Janna.

" _That_ is Hekapoo, forger of dimensional scissors, member of the MHC, and aclosefriend but that's not important." Angie said quickly, "But what _is_ important is that she will seek out my son, eventually, and she doesn't care much about playing _nice_. She's a woman with a _very_ short fuse if you catch my meaning."

"But **why** is she after Marco?! They've never even met!"

Angie couldn't help but grin mischievously at Janna's reaction, knowing she had her on the hook again, "Because I promised my son to her when he was a baby after we had an interesting... exchange of words. It's only natural for her to be curious about him."

As soon as those words reached Janna's ears, she shot out of her seat and would have punched Angie in the face if it weren't for Jackie stopping her from sending the punch. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! THAT'S FUCKED AND CRUEL! WHAT KIND OF PARENT DOES THAT?!"

"Relax, Janna! That means nothing to Marco, you should know that he doesn't care much about shit like this! Remember what he said in history class about arranged marriages? He said it was _stupid_ and _depressing_." Jackie said in an attempt to calm her raging friend, which seemed to work by how Janna's breathing began to slow and steady itself. She let go of her, and they both sat down.

Angie continued to drink from her glass, unfazed by Janna's outburst and placed it down when she was done. She slowly stood up and sat down next to Janna, worrying Jackie at what would happen if she wasn't quick enough to stop her friend from exploding like that again if Angie made another provoking comment. Janna was about to say some very colorful words to her but was stopped by Angie's intense gaze. "Janna, I'm only giving you the facts and possibilities but, as Jackie said, the decision of who my son chooses is his and his alone. Sure, _I_ could suggest options to him but I know my son well enough to recognize that he doesn't listen to me as much as he used to, especially about things like this..."

After a few seconds of silence, she placed her hand on Janna's shoulder and smiled at the out-of-shape-sweaty girl. "Janna, you have to see this from _my_ perspective. Marco is the only family I have left, and... he means the universe to me, so I just want him to choose the right one and live his life with as little complications as possible someday. To start a family of his own, and give me some grandchildren (Janna liked the sound of that if the blush on her face was any indication) before I'm too old to move about." she said with an infectious laugh that caused the two girls to join her.

"[Grins] I understand your point Ms. Diaz, but you have to understand that I do love your son. Like _a lot_!"

"Dangerous levels of _a lot_ ," a smirking Jackie quickly added.

"The point is, I will do everything in my power to make him happy and I can assure you that there will be no _problemas_ in the grandchildren department," said Janna with such a serious face that Angie couldn't help but burst out laughing. She could _kind of_ see why her son cared for her if only a little bit.

"HAHAHA Alright Janna, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but could you tell me how you fell in love with my son? I haven't heard anything specific from Marco regarding you two, so could you enlighten me?!" Angie asked in a happy tone since she was about to find out a secret that her son _didn't_ want her to know, which is information she could probably use later on.

Jackie glanced at Janna and knew what her answer was going to be so she laid back and closed her eyes, having heard the reasons why she fell in love with Marco about a thousand times already. As for Janna, she wasn't sure if she should tell her but decided "what the heck, it won't hurt anybody."

Janna took a deep breath and began to tell Angie about the times and reasons she fell and is still in love with Marco Ubaldo Diaz…

* * *

 **A/N** : **How was this update? I thought it was alright lol, not much action. Next chapter in this story will most likely start with a flashback of the characters earlier years, so heads up. Anyways, like always, thanks for the support and reviews! The reviews especially since they help me figure out the overall story better, as in what I'm not doing a good job on or what I am doing a good job on so please review! Well, see you all next time! Peaceeee!**


End file.
